SEABA / Mau 12,2017
Troy Rosario of Gilas Pilipinas Thien Han of Myanmar, at the Smart Araneta .
INQUIRER PHOTO/AUGUST DELA CRUZ
Gilas Pilipinas crushes Myanmar in first game in SEABA C’ships
Games today:
Araneta Coliseum
3 p.m. – Vietnam vs. Thailand
5 p.m. – Indonesia vs. Malaysia
7 p.m. – Philippines vs. Singapore
The Philippine national team were off to a sizzling start as it routed Myanmar, 147-40, in the first day of the 2017 SEABA Championships yesterday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Calvin Abueva finished with 22 points to lead a Gilas Pilipinas squad that started the game with a 17-0 run.
The Nationals continued to pound on the hapless Myanmar team and led, 66-12, at the half.
Myanmar got into a rhythm in the third and scored 17 points but still trailed, 29-110, going into the final canto.
Gilas then erected a 100-point lead for the first time in the game in the final three minutes then held Myanmar scoreless after that to peg the final score.
Allein Maliksi added 20 points while Cebuanos RR Pogoy and June Mar Fajardo chipped in 17 and 14, respectively, in a game wherein nine players scored in double figures for the Gilas.
The other double-digit scorers were Jio Jalalon (13), Troy Rosario (13), Matthew Wright (12), Andray Blatche (11) and Japeth Aguilar (11).
All members of the Gilas who saw action actually managed to score.
On the other hand, only one player from Myanmar reached double figures in Aung Wana, who finished with 12 markers.
“I know there’s a lot of things, a lot of talk around this game, and around this campaign. But we just talked about in our pregame that we just need to not worry about the extraneous things that are going on and focus on what we need to do to get the job done,” Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said.
“The only thing that we were really concerned about in this ball game was our hustle numbers. That was our only focus.”