Angola used their height advantage to dominate the Philippines 82-72 in the opening game of the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship in front a huge partisan Filipino crowd at Al Ahli Arena yesterday.
After trailing 10-6 in the opening minutes, Angola showed their dominance throughout the match, taking a 15-12 lead at the end of the first quarter which they increased to nine, 41-32, at the half. Their highest lead was at 14, 55-41, in the middle of the third quarter.
Joao Jungo led Angola with a double-double performance, top-scoring with 28 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He was followed by Eric Amandio and Edmilson Miranda with 17 and 12 markers respectively.
Jolo Mendoza was the top player for the Philippines with 16 points while Jose Go and Diego Dario added 13 and 12 respectively.
“The story of the game is that we got out-rebounded 70-46,” Philippine national team coach Michael Jarin told Sport360°. “They (Angola) got 21 offensive rebounds as compared to our nine and that means they had 21 times more possession.”
Angola also had better field goal performance shooting, 60.6 per cent, compared to 45.3 per cent for the Philippines and they had more assists, 14-6. But Angola had more turnovers, 20-9, and the Philippines had more steals, 10-2.
The Philippines were also hobbled by poor outside shooting, making only five of their 35 attempts from the three-point area, which according to Jarin is very uncharacteristic of his team.
“We average at least 12-15 three-pointers per game but because of their reach, we missed some open shots,” Jarin said.
