GILAS UNDER 18 TEAM IN AMAZING COMEBACK TO BEAT QATAR 82-79
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 23 Aug 2014
Living up to the Gilas Pilipinas emotional slogan Laban! Puso! The Philippines Under 18 team beat host nation Qatar in an amazing comeback from 15 points down going into the fourth quarter to eventually score a pulsating 82-79 victory and move one step closer to a quarter finals berth in the FIBA Asia Under 18 Championships in Doha.
Heavily favored to overcome host nation Qatar who lost to Malaysia in the final day of the preliminary round in Doha, 78-70. The Qataris were led by Abdulrachman Saad who finished with 35 big points to follow up on his 28 points and 7 rebounds against the.Malaysians, Qatar looked headed for a big upset but the gallant young Filipinos refused to quit.
6?2? small forward Dave Yu led the charge with three consecutive triples in the fourth quarter while Radge Tongco, the San Beda point guard who top scored with 24 point outputs against Jordan and South Korea to team up with Kobe Paras, son of PBA two-rime MVP Benjie Paras and Paul Desiderio added 13 points apiece.
Tongco who couldn?t buy a basket well into the fourth quarter suddenly exploded to score 7 of the team?s last 14 points.
The Qataris surged to a 21-12 lead in the first quarter but the Batang Gilas boys clawed back behind a 7-1 run to end the dirst ten minutes down by just 3 points at 22-19.
Paras got to work early in the second quarter to fuel an 8-0 run that gave the Philippines a one point lead 38-37 and despite the heroics of Saad who at that stage had tallied 22 points the Filipinos kept that one point edge at the half 40-39.
Saad was not to be denied and he continued to wreak havoc on the Philippine defense making 13 points behind three triples to help the hosts charge in front by 11, 58-47 and hung on to that spread until end of the third, 64-53 behind a big 25-12 third stanza. which they increased to 15 , 68-53 with rime down to 7:43.
It was at this stage that Yu fueled an epic turnaround with three consecutive triples to trim the deficit to eight at 70-62.
Desiderio who played well when suiting up for the Under 17 squad in Dubai, nailed a triple of his own after which Chino Mosqueda got into the act with a basket from beyond the arc to cut the Qatar lead to 6, 74-68 before the scrambling young boys cut the lead to one with just over a minute in the game. 79-78.
With 10 seconds left Paras pulled off a steal and Desiderio scored before Desiderio himself stole the ball and Tongco converted one of two free throws on the fifth foul of Saad with 7 seconds to go to seal an amazing comeback.
Tongco finished with 13 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists while Paras capped a fine performance with 13 points, 4 rebounbds, 1 assist ands 4 crucial steals.
The scores:
Batang Gilas (82) ? Yu 16, Paras 13, Tongco 13, Desiderio 13, Escoto 7, Caracut 6, Mosqueda 6, Dyke 4, Black 2, Go 2, Santillan 0, Bienes 0.
Qatar (79) ? Saad 35, Abdelhaleem 15, Alyousif 13, Alshawaqfeh 8, Abed 6, Aql 2, Abouzenad 0.
Quarterscores: 19-22, 40-39, 53-64, 82-79.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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