Young guns Rhenz Abando and AJ Edu provided the spark for Gilas Pilipinas, leading the Philippines’ 76-65 whipping of Iran’s Team B to open its 2023 Heyuan WUS International Basketball Tournament campaign on Thursday at the Heyuan Sport Gymnasium.
This is the first official preparation game of Gilas for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
And it was Abando and Edu who shone brightly for the nationals.
Edu, who is set to play for Toyama, tallied nine points, nine rebounds, and a block while Abando, who plays for Anyang KGC, produced a line of eight points, two rebounds, an assist, and two blocks.
The two sparkplugs helped Gilas buck a slow start, turning a 21-23 deficit into a 40-34 lead as the two anchored the Philippine defense.
The rest of the vets then followed suit, extending the Gilas lead to a high of 19, 66-47.
Ginebra’s Jamie Malonzo and TNT’s Calvin Oftana got 11 and 10 points, respectively, with the former also grabbing six rebounds.
Dwight Ramos, who plays for Hokkaido, scored eight of his 10 points in the opening salvo.
Also providing for Gilas offense were Roger Pogoy (eight points) and CJ Perez (seven).
Iran, who fell to 0-2 after an 85-75 defeat at the hands of Senegal yesterday, was led by Amir Hosein Yazarlou with eight points.
Gilas will next face Senegal on Friday at Jiangman En Ping Sport Gymnasium.
The Scores:
Philippines 76 – Malonzo 11, Ramos 10, Oftana 10, Edu 9, Pogoy 8, Abando 8, Perez 7, Fajardo 5, Aguilar 4, Newsome 2, Parks 2, Ravena K. 1, Ravena T. 0.
Iran 65 – Yazarlou A. 8, Azari 7, Tahari 7, Sharifi 7, Yazarlou N. 6, Rahimian 6, Dalirzahan 6, Mokarian 5, Alizadeh 4, Kashani 4, Khosravi 3, Far 2, Jafari 0, Arabzadeh 0.
Quarterscores: 21-23, 40-34, 59-46, 76-65.
