The Olympic dream of Philippine basketball remains as it is: Just a dream.

Using a big second half spurt, Jordan showed the Philippines the door in the Fiba-Asia Championships last night with an 84-76 victory, dashing all hopes of a Filipino crew playing Olympic basketball in Beijing next year.

The Filipinos, who were aiming to duplicate the feat of the 1972 Philippine Team that competed in the Munich Olympics, started strong and even seized a 27-18 lead early in the second period on Jimmy Alapag's trey but they failed to sustain their form, dropping its second game in three matches. American Rasheim Wright, a naturalized Jordanian, fuelled the comeback and topscored with 24 points but it was his team's domination of the boards and the Filipinos' elementary errors that eventually spelled the difference.

"I think we lost it when we went ahead 18-13 at the end of the first quarter. Better off to trail and bounce back than go ahead and get complacent," said RP coach Chot Reyes.

Jordan outrebounded the Philippines, 44-30. The statistic included Jordan's 16 offensive rebounds, seven more than the Philippines.

The turnover story --- Philippines 14, Jordan 8 --- meant that the Jordanians had 13 more extra possessions, counting the offensive boards.

"I think we defended rather well in the third and final quarter," said Jordan coach Mario Palma.

"Also I think we were helped by some of their wayward shooting. I was a little shocked to see those shots, but I'm not complaining," the Portuguese added.

The result meant that Jordan advanced to the quarterfinals as the No. 2 squad in the so-called Group of Death, topped by Iran, which dealt defending champion China a third straight defeat, 77-68, earlier.

With Wright scoring on spot-up jumpers and drives and Islam Abbaas hustling for easy putbacks, Jordan opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 blitz to take a 62-51 advantage, 7:11 remaining.

The National were still in it with four minutes left, 55-66, but Sam Daghles stroked home a triple from the left flank to increase the lead, 69-55.

And even though Dondon Hontiveros nailed three triples near the end, including the one that trimmed the deficit, 70-77, with 32.4 left, it wasn't enough as Jordan proved steady from the free throw line.

Two basic miscues --- a traveling on Hontiveros with 15 seconds left and another dribbling violation on JJ Helterbrand with 1:17 remaining --- also hastened the defeat.

Led by an inspired Asi Taulava, who was imposing his will down low before getting into foul-trouble, and JJ Helterbrand, the Filipinos entered halftime on the driver's seat, 35-33, moments after Filipino-American Gabe Norwood's emphatic one-handed jam off a Mark Caguioa feed on the fast-break.

But back-to-back treys by Zahid Alkhas and five straight points by Wright gave Jordan its second taste of the lead, 46-45, 4:03 remaining in the third.

Then, Daghles stepped up, stringing five points inside one minute as the Jordanians led 54-51 heading into the final period. Daghles had 22 points, while Alkhas made 16.

Alapag, the hero in the win against China, was unable to reproduce his performance, finishing with 10 points.

The China game, where he sizzled for six points of his 16 points in the final minute, remained the only shining moment for Caguioa, who fouled out with 9 points and was responsible for four turnovers.

The Philippines' motion offense seemed to get stalled when Caguioa had the ball as the Ginebra guard opted for more one-on-one plays and took ill-advised triples but failed to nail even one in five attempts. He converted four of his 13 shots.

Also hurting the Nationals' chances was Kerby Raymundo's foot injury in the opening quarter, which forced the Purefoods center out until the third period. *CPT

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