Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
AS expected, Gilas Pilipinas vented its ire against hapless Singapore, 105-45, to formalize its entry into the crossover semifinals at the close of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games men's basketball group stage at the Morodok Techo National Stadium Elephant Hall 2 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
The Filipinos got off to a 29-5 in the opening quarter and never looked back in a huge recovery following Thursday evening's shocking 79-68
loss to the import-spiced Cambodia.
Marcio Lassiter led Gilas' scoring attack with 16 points, lacing his good shooting night with four three's against a porous Singapore defense.
delivered to your inbox
CJ Perez added 13 and 11 rebounds in a huge double-double effort, while Justin Brownlee, Jerome Lastimosa and Michael Phillips added 12 apiece.
Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser was the sixth double-figure scorer for the Philippines with 10 points.
The Filipinos dominated the battle of the boards, 57-26, showed solid team play this time with their 30-10 sizeable advantage in assists department, and used their size in overwhelming the Singaporeans with their 60-14 lead in points in the paint.
Gilas finished its Group A assignment at 2-1 and will await the winner of the Indonesia-Thailand pivotal clash for Group B on Sunday.
Chot Reyes' charges have learned to quickly move forward since the tension-filled group stage match against the host nation Cambodia.
The Philippines though, will be an interested observer with Timnas, and the Thais slugging it out at the close of the Group B eliminations.
Either way, Gilas will have to deal with a tougher opposition since Indonesia is bannered by three naturalized players, while Thailand has Moses Morgan and Tyler Lamb leading the way.
Meanwhile, Gilas Pilipinas women kept their three-peat bid alive with a 116-58 rout of Vietnam.
With the victory, the Filipinas bounced back from their loss to Indonesia to improve to 3-1.
That put them still in play for the top seed, and the championship with two more games to go.
Indonesia is on the lead with a 4-0 slate followed by Malaysia, which has a 4-1 record.
The team with the best record after the single round-robin phase wins the title.
*****
Credit belongs to : www.manilatimes.net
