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BELGRADE, Serbia: Young in age and experience but not
in height and ability, the Montenegro under-20 national team gave
San Miguel-Pilipinas all it could handle before bowing, 99-85,
Monday at the Sports Ecko Sportski Centar here.
Forward Danny Seigle suffered a
hamstring pull and was lost for the rest of the series, while Mark
Caguioa brushed aside a punching foul he took early in the game.
Though not in the original
schedule of teams to face, the Nationals gave up their day-off to
play a young, tall team that was going to pressure defensively and
run.
Starting off with 6-2 point guard
Marko Mijovic, 6-4 off-guard Sead Sehovic, 6-6 small forward Aleksa
Popovic, 6-9 power forward Milovan Savovic, and 6-10 center Maksim
Sturanovic, the Montis pressured SMC-RP and stayed in the passing
lanes from the opening buzzer.
This forced the Nationals’
starting unit of Jimmy Alapag, Mark Caguioa, Dondon Hontiveros,
Ranidel de Ocampo and Asi Taulava to spread the floor and look for
backdoor cutting opportunities early.
With Seigle coming off the bench,
the Nationals took a 26-18 lead after the first quarter, increasing
it to 51-40 at the half by going to Jayjay Helterbrand and using
their experience to offset the absence of Kerby Raymundo (food
poisoning) and Tony dela Cruz (strained back).
Sehovic, who was called for a
punching foul against Caguioa in the first quarter, returned in the
second half to spark his team briefly before getting repelled by the
mid-post attacks of Ranidel de Ocampo, Dondon Hontiveros and Caguioa
for a 56-43 Team RP advantage.
Going to their reserves,
Montenegro coach Dejan Radonjic summoned Marko Milatovic and Igor
Bjelic and the duo combined to close the gap, 74-67, at three
quarters end.
Then came Seigle’s injury.
With eight minutes left, Seigle drove, pivoted, and spun to the
baseline only to go down screaming in pain from a pulled hamstring.
With Seigle out and Mick Pennisi
and De Ocampo fouling out, the Nationals went to Fil-Am Gabe Norwood
who bailed them out at power forward with his aggressiveness and
versatility.
”This was a good game for us to
play as this team gave us a different look from the three we
previously battled,” said RP coach Chot Reyes.
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