Terrence Romeo pulls up for a jumper against India in the Fiba Asia Championships in China.
fiba.com
The Gilas Pilipinas smothered India with a superb second half onslaught and emerged with a dominant 99-65 victory to claim the top spot in Group E in the 2015 Fiba Asia Men’s Championship yesterday at the CWSC in Changsha, China.
The Gilas will be facing Group F fourth-ranked team Lebanon, which came up with a pivotal 80-76 win over the Rajko Toroman-coached Jordan team later in the day.
Though India proved to be a tough customer in the early goings, the Philippine quintet finally managed to assert themselves in the final period, scoring an incredible 22 straight points to finally put the Indians away and complete a sweep of the second round, improving its record to 4-1 (win-loss) in Group E.
The Gilas outscored its opponents, 34-15, in the final 10 minutes of action. In all, six players finished in double-figures for the national team led by Terrence Romeo, who had 20 points. Naturalized player Andray Blatche finished with 15 markers, Ranidel de Ocampo had 15, while Marc Pingris, Calvin Abueva and Jayson Castro each tallied 12.
India managed to hit its shots in the first canto, where it took a 14-9 behind the playmaking of Amiyot Singh and Amritpal Singh.
But the Filipinos recovered behind the torrid shooting of Romeo and de Ocampo, who had 11 apiece at the break to help the team get in front, 42-36, at halftime. De Ocampo punctuated that stretch with a buzzer-beating triple from the wing.
The floodgates started to open in the third as the Gilas took advantage of the inexperience of India’s backcourt, with a full court press that forced numerous turnovers that turned into easy lay-ups.
With Castro prowling the passing lanes and Blatche and Pingris having their way inside, the Philippines zoomed ahead, 59-45.
But India still had some fight left in them and cut the deficit to eight, 58-66, after consecutive triples.
The Philippines, though, was relentless as Romeo, Blatche and Abueva took turns punching holes in the defense of India to pull away and brace themselves for the knockout quarterfinals, which begins tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Iran ousted Palestine with a 94-48 rout yesterday.
THE SCORES:
Philippines (99) – Romeo 20, Blatche 15, De Ocampo 13, Pingris 12, Castro 12, Abueva 12, Hontiveros 6, Ganuelas 5, Norwood 2, Intal 2, Thoss 0, Taulava 0.
India (65) – Bhriguvanshi 21, Amj. Singh 18, Amr. Singh 11, Ya. Singh 7, Pari 5, Shinde 3, Prakash Uppar 0, Kaushik 0, Arugugam 0, Gill 0, Kumar 0.
Quarter scores: 16-17, 42-36, 65-50, 99-65.