By Nick Giongco
JAKARTA – Putting the cuffs on Jordan Clarkson and Stanley Pringle would be the key when Korea faces the Philippines in the Asian Games basketball wars, naturalized player Ricardo Ratliffe said following his team’s one-sided 117-77 win over Thailand on Wednesday night.
“Slow down Jordan Clarkson and also Stanley Pringle, keep him out of the paint because he (Pringle) is super fast and he is under-rated in Asian (basketball) and that’s our main thing,” said Ratliffe, who also saw action in the PBA before finally deciding to settle down in Korea and become a naturalized player.
The Philippine team, the 29-year-old Ratliffe points out, “is guard-oriented with a good base” and keeping Clarkson and Pringle on a tight leash will prevent the Philippines from upsetting the defending champion.
As to facing his Missouri schoolmate Clarkson next week, Ratliffe, who stands 6-8 and plays center, is “looking forward” to the clash that he envisions to become a “fun and exciting game.”
Against the overmatched Thais, Ratcliffe poured in a team-high 21 points and six rebounds in just 20 minutes of play.
The Koreans were scorching hot from downtown, sinking 15 of 32attempts for a 47 percent clip.
Two other Koreans – Jeon Junbeom and Kang Sangjae – had 20 each in the game that was ripped apart as early as the end of the first half when the Thais stared at a 62-36 bubble.
Clarkson made a rousing Asian Games debut Tuesday by dumping a game-high 28 points in the Philippines’ heartbreaking 82-80 loss to China.
Ratliffe was in attendance to see how Clarkson, who attended Missouri just as Ratliffe was leaving in 2013, would look against the stratospheric Chinese squad and was impressed.
Given that the 6-foot-5 Clarkson, a major player in the Cleveland Cavaliers rotation had not played the Asian brand of play, Ratliffe thought his fellow Missouri alum did exceptionally well.
Clarkson is expected to be instrumental against Korea, a team that the Philippines considers as a thorn ever since their rivalry began in the 1960s.
