TAIPEI – As a rookie on a team made up mostly of established PBA stars, Garvo Lanete was tasked to take care of the dirty laundry of his millionaire teammates on Saturday night.
A day later, he got the job done on the floor as well.
The former San Beda standout broke loose with a team-high 21 points on Sunday, including 10 in a breakaway second quarter as Smart-Gilas Pilipinas kept its slate clean in the 34th William Jones Cup with a 99-68 victory over Taipei-B before a highly partisan crowd at the Taipei PE College gym.
“Pagod pa ‘yan kasi s’ya umasikaso ng mga labahin kagabi,” said national coach Chot Reyes, who bared that Lanete and fellow PH team rookies Jay-R Reyes and Matt Rossen were ordered to take their teammates’ dirty laundry to the cleaners as part of the team’s ‘initiation rites.’
“That’s part of being a rookie in any team,” Reyes said with a smile. “But today, he gave us the big spark that we needed.”
His 21 points were the most scored by a Filipino player so far in the nine-country, 10-team event as Lanete readily justified Reyes’ controversial decision to include him in a team made up of pro stars and led by naturalized slotman Marcus Douthit.
“That kid is really good and has a big fighting heart,” Reyes said.
Larry Fonacier and Sonny Thoss backed up Lanete with 12 points each while guard LA Tenorio and Douthit had 11 apiece for Gilas, which takes its only break on Monday before facing its first real test the next day against Korea.
Like Gilas, the Koreans stayed unbeaten in the single-round robin tournament with a 94-78 victory over Lebanon.
The scores:
Gilas (99) – Lanete 21, Fonacier 12, Thoss 12, Tenorio 11, Douthit 11, Chan 7, David 7, De Ocampo 6, Reyes 4, Baracael 3, Mercado 1.
TAIPEI-B (68) – Sung 22, Chou 17, Lo 10, Lin 9, Lung 8, Chen 2, Chung 0, Peng 0, Hung 0, Chen 0, Liu 0.
Quarters: 28-18, 53-32, 75-49, 99-68.
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