Blatche-less Gilas Pilipinas remains fearless, upsets mighty China in FIBA Asia opener

No Blatche, no Fajardo — no problem!

Escaping from the late scoring barrage of the tough Chinese squad, the fearless Gilas Pilipinas survived as Terrence Romeo took over in the final stretch of the ball game —giving the Filipinos a hard-earned 96-87 win against the defending champions in the FIBA Asia Cup opener on Wednesday night in Beirut, Lebanon.

Terrence Romeo’s late game heroics provided the sparks for the Gilas squad as he uncovered his game long brilliance down-the-wire.

Gilas Pilipinas was on to a dream start courtesy of a Japeth Aguilar nice-looking fade away, a Christian Standhardinger inside finish and another Aguilar in a different territory with a three-pointer to showcase an impressive ‘pace and space’ execution and expose a 12-4 blast in the first period, giving the Filipinos a comfortable 10-point lead at 26-16.

Pandemonium broke loose the moment when Philippine squad showcased another merciless rampage courtesy of the inside operator Raymond Almazan’s fearless dunks, followed by Terrence Romeo and Almazan consecutive threes to give them an extended 17-point lead.

A waxing hot China, meanwhile, refused to go down without giving a single fight in the third quarter by gaining their offensive pace through their raining triples to hurt the Filipinos — trimming the deficit into six points entering the last period of the ball game, 76-70.

The final period seemed to be a Terrence Romeo-Guo Ailun duel, providing sparks for their own teams. However, the China emerged on top as they regained their hard-earned lead at the final 5 minutes of the ball game.

Fortunately for the Gilas, the man of the moment Romeo was always there to deliver the goods, exposing his game-long brilliance by knocking down a cold-blooded three and another jump shot from a crossover to reclaim a 2-point lead, 89-87.

There was no looking back for the Filipinos as the well-oiled defensive machine Gilas Pilipinas, led by triple towers Japeth Aguilar, Christian Standhardinger and Raymond Almazan, was reincarnated in the final stretch of the ball game, providing support to a waxing hot Romeo to upset the towering players of China and escape with a 96-87 victory.

Off the bench, Terrence Romeo lead the Gilas with his huge 26-point performace (64% field goal shooting) and five out of seven from the rainbow territory.

Christian Standhardinger registered 15 points with a much efficient 75% shooting clip while Jayson Castro and Matthew Wright scored 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Calvin Abueva, however, has been ejected in the ball game by a disqualifying foul due to his head-butt retaliation from a Chinese player’s hard foul.

On the side of China, their go-to-guy Guo finished with 18 points and five assists, leading the defending champions while Zhou Peng added 17.

The Philippines’ next assignment in the group stage will be Iraq. | Tretch Melarpes – PTV

The Scores:

Philippines (96) — Romeo 26, Standhardinger 15, Castro 13, Wright 12, Pogoy 9, Almazan 9, Aguilar 7, Norwood 3, Abueva 2, Cruz 0, Jalalon 0, Fajardo 0.

China (87) — Guo 18, Zhou 17, Hu 13, Li G. 11, Liu 9, Wu 6, Han 4, Ren 4, Gu 3, Yu 2, Zeng 0, Li M. 0

Quarterscores: 26-16, 53-39, 76-70, 96-87