The Philippines wrapped up its campaign with a 6-0 slate and clinched their slot in the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup, slated from August 16-28 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Gilas Pilipinas swept South Korea with an 82-77 win on Sunday night (June 20) to finish the 2021 Fiba Asia Cup Qualifiers with a perfect record at Angeles University Foundation in Clark, Pampanga.
The Philippines wrapped up its campaign with a 6-0 slate and clinched their slot in the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup, slated from August 16-28 in Jakarta, Indonesia, while South Korea finished with a 4-2 card in Group A.
The young national team shot the lights out against the Koreans and made 14 three-pointers in the game, out of 37 attempts while the shooters of South Korea only shot 10 out of 35 from deep.
Baldwin also credited the young Gilas squad in forcing more turnovers to South Korea (7-12) and getting points from turnovers (19-5) and fast break shots (9-3).
The South Koreans opened the game on a 9-0 run with Gilas having another slow start but came back with eight unanswered points to set up another tight match and eventually with their outside shooting clicking, the Filipinos were able to take a 38-34 lead at the half.
Gilas head coach Tab Baldwin said his team’s progress in the qualifiers is just where he wants it to be, considering the youth and inexperience of his squad in closing out games.
“I’m not too worried about the score at the beginning of the game I’m much more concerned about the score at the end of the game, and I’ve seen in today’s today’s basketball world too many big leads early in games disappear. In fact, I don’t trust the big lead if it happens to be in our favor, so I don’t get too concerned about early deficits or big leads, we just try and play through it,” Baldwin noted.
Dwight Ramos led all scorers in the Philippine side with 19 points, where he shot five three-pointers on top of 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 2 steals to lead four Filipinos in double figures.
Other players who had double figures in the game were Kai Sotto, delivering 10 points and 7 rebounds for Gilas Pilipinas, RJ Abarrientos with 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists, while Jordan Heading added another 10 points.
William Navarro also put up 8 points and 4 rebounds, naturalized player Angelo Kouame had 7 points and 8 rebounds, while Justine Baltazar made his presence felt in the win with 6 points and 6 rebounds and a wide-open dunk that put the Philippines up 79-75 with 30 seconds left.
Gilas will now prepare to fly over to Serbia, where they will take on the hosts and Dominican Republic in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Belgrade on June 30 and July 1. (NP)
Tags: #basketball, #GilasPilipinas, #2021FIBAAsiaCup