The Philippines bowed to Kazakhstan, 107-90, Tuesday but managed to finish third overall at the close of the 29th William Jones Cup International basketball tournament in Taipei.

The Filipinos are leaving for home today then play another series with Fiba Asia defending champion China, Lebanon and Syria starting Thursday in Manila.

They trailed by only four at 72-76 at the end of the third quarter But the Kazakhs, who now own four victories in as many international meetings with the Filipinos, waxed hot in the fourth quarter, opening with a 13-2 blitz to pull ahead at 89-74.

Another 15-6 bomb by the Kazakhs, after Mark Caguioa scored RP's second basket in the period with 6:20 left, put the outcome beyond doubt, 104-80, barely three minutes left.

National coach Chot Reyes said his boys didn't make any effort to avoid what became the worst of their four losses in nine games.

"Kazakhstan is really a very strong team and I don't mind losing to them. But not this way. We didn't have any effort at all. This is unacceptable," Reyes said.

The Philippines came into the game inspired by an 88-80 win over Asiad runner-up Qatar Monday.

Reyes, however, said he saw the loss coming in the second half of their game against Qatar and even tried to keep RP's competitive juice flowing by ordering practice early in the day.

"But mentally, they had already checked out of this tournament," noted Reyes, who went straight to the team bus after the game then cancelled a scheduled team dinner, confined his boys to quarters, banned visitors and ordered lights out at 10 p.m.

"Let's pray that we don't meet the Kazakhs in the Fiba Asia because when you lose a game this way, they will have this in mind when we meet again," Reyes said.

The unexpected last-game debacle dashed RP's scant hopes of placing second in a tiebreak with Lebanon, the United States and host Taiwan.

The Filipinos finished third, despite a three-way tie with Korea and the United States at 5-4. Jordan won the championship as expected despite a 102-101 upset loss to Japan to finish at 7-2.

Aside from dominating the offensive boards, Kazakhstan spewed fire from the perimeter with 16 triples out of 36 attempts. The Filipinos only made 9 of 25 three-pointers.

Caguioa and Alapag paced the Filipinos with 24 and 21 points, respectively. Dondon Hontiveros added 14 and Kelly Williams 13. In another big blow to their Olympic hopes, RP stalwart and Negrense James Yap sprained his left ankle in the second period and had to be carried by Asi Taulava to the bench. *

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