Gilas Men’s U23 survived Kazakhstan in a thriller, 15-14, to secure its place in the 19th Asian Games 3×3 quarterfinals, Saturday at the Deqing Geographic Information Park Basketball Court in Hangzhou, China.
Heroes were aplenty in the victory, with Bryan Sajonia breaking the 11-all tie through a free throw with 1:21 remaining before Bismarck Lina and JR Pasaol came through with key buckets to keep their taller foes at bay.
Lady Luck then smiled at the crew as the Kazakhs missed the potential game-winning deuce as time expired, and the quartet went on to celebrate as they found redemption after losing to Mongolia barely 24 hours ago.
Now, the team focuses on the knockout quarters, where it will be taking on South Korea, Pool B’s no. 1 seed, later in the night at 8:55.
Pasaol led the Philippines with five points. Lina and Justine Sanchez scored four points apiece, while Sajonia chipped in two.
Ramazan Samsin, on the other hand, led Kazakhstan with eight points. Adil Narimanov made four, while Bogdan Rabchenyuk added two in the loss.
The team from Central Asia actually got off to a good start when it forced Lina to a turnover and then made him pay for it by converting a two-pointer for the game’s first points, but Gilas slowly got into the game.
Down 2-4, Sanchez and Pasaol conspired for three straight points to take the lead with about six minutes left, and both teams would throw punch after punch against one another that made it a tight affair all the way to the final seconds.
But then, Gilas was more composed come gut check time, with Pasaol pushing their lead to 15-13 with a conversion inside with 18.4 seconds left.
Samsin answered back moments later to trim the gap to just a point and the Kazakhs even got the final possession their way. But they ran out of luck as Rabchenyuk missed his long two, and Sajonia was there to collar the board.
The Scores:
Philippines (15) – Pasaol 5, Lina 4, Sanchez 4, Sajonia 2.
Kazakhstan (14) – Samsin 8, Narimanov 4, Rabchenyuk 2, Rodionov 0.
