Andray Blatche of the Philippines lays it up over a Lebanese player.
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Castro, Blatche carry National Team to Final Four of Fiba Asia Men’s Championship
The Gilas Pilipinas advanced to the semifinals of the 2015 Fiba Asia Men’s Championship with a hard-fought 82-70 rout of Lebanon in the quarterfinals last night at the CWSC Gym in Changsha, China.
The Philippines got awesome performances from naturalized player Andray Blatche and speedy guard Jayson Castro, who combined for more than half of the team’s total output, including several clutch shots that put down a comeback try by Lebanon in the final frame.
Castro finished with 25 markers spiked by five three-point bombs while Blatche, the former Brooklyn Net, had 24 points and 17 rebounds.
JAPAN VS PH
With just two wins to go to clinch a berth in the 2016 Summer Olympics which will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Philippines next takes on Japan in the semifinals.
Japan, which won over Qatar, 81-67, earlier in the day, has already been defeated by the Philippines twice in the last three weeks – once in the Jones Cup and yet again in the second round of this very same tournament.
The win was huge for the Filipinos at it assured them of a spot in a Olympic qualifying tournament.
The other semis pairing will see a match-up between two Asian powerhouse teams, the reigning champion Iran and the hosts China.
Iran made short work of Korea, 75-62, while China dealt India a 104-58 crushing later in their quarterfinal games.
Iran didn’t waste much time in establishing their superiority in this encounter of traditional Asian heavyweights as it built a 15-point lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back, going up by as many as 23 points.
The starting frontline of Hamed Haddadi and Oshin Sahakian did much of the damage for the Iranians, combining for 30 points and 21 rebounds, while starting shooting guard Hamed Afagh added 11 points and hit three three-pointers.
Korea got 10 points each from Kim Jong-Kyu and Moon Tae-Young. The Koreans sputtered from long range, hitting just two of their 13 attempts from beyond the arc. The usually very efficient Yang Dong-Geun also had a subpar game, finishing with only 6 points, 3 assists and 1 rebound.