Despite a sloppy start in both offensive and defensive end, Gilas Pilipinas still pulled a late fourth quarter surge to defeat the tough Singapore, 68-60, in semifinals, forcing their way to the finals of 2017 Southeast Asian Games men’s basketball tournament on Friday at MABA Stadium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Before reaching the semifinals, the Philippines swept the hoops eliminations with 3-0 clean slate, and pushed their gold medal quest on its last step by beating the pesky Singaporean squad.
Singapore clicked in all cylinders, managing to trade baskets with the Filipinos while narrowing the gap by as much as one point but the pumped up Gilas rebuffed and still established an eight-point gap, 32-24, at the end of first half.
Refusing to go down without a single fight, Singapore kept on exchanging baskets with the Gilas squad, reaching the point of the last quarter where in they’re just trailing a five-point deficit.
Gilas Pilipinas, however, quickly stepped on the gas and avoided a close call courtesy of Mike Tolomia’s triple to expand a double-digit spread at the 4:35 mark of the 4th period.
Twenty-two seconds left when the buoyant Singaporean team released a cold-blooded trey but it was still not enough as the solid fourth quarter composure was already established by Gilas Pilipinas and it was all them since then as they completely sealed the win against the resilient Singaporean squad.
Fil-German Christian Standhardinger led the Gilas with his double-double performance of 13 points and 11 rebounds while Troy Rosario also delivered double digits, both in offense and rebounding, with his 14 markers and 10 boards.
Mike Tolomia also provided firepower in the end-game with his 10 points while Baser Amer and Kobe Paras also contributed 8 and 7 points, respectively.
Gilas Pilipinas will next face the winner between Thailand and Indonesia in the finals for the targeted gold medal. | Tretch Melarpes – PTV
The scores:
Philippines (68) – Rosario 14, Standhardinger 13, Tolomia 10, Amer 8, Paras 7, Ravena 5, Parks 4, Pessumal 4, Ferrer 2, Cruz 1, Jose 0, Vosotros 0.
Singapore (60) – Low 14, Wong 12, Kwek 8, Liew 6, Ng 6, Folkoff 6, Goh 6, Chia 2.
Quarterscores: 15-12, 32-24, 49-42, 68-60.
