Mason Amos and Gilas Pilipinas Under-18 Boys got back their footing after a day’s rest, staving off Chinese-Taipei in the first round of the 2022 FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship’s classification phase, taking a 72-67 victory, Friday at Azadi Basketball Hall in Tehran.
Coming off an 84-73 win over the same team three days ago, the trio of Amos, EJ Abadam, and Seven Gagate stepped on the pedal in the second quarter, helping turn a 19-12 deficit into a 35-27 halftime lead.
The Philippines’ lead went to as high as 20 points before Chinese-Taipei tried to hijack the game.
Gilas committed a bevy of turnovers in the endgame. Chinese-Taipei took advantage of this, cutting the lead down to five, 72-67, with 26 seconds remaining.
Te Chi Hsu and Hsuan Chen missed in the clutch to give Gilas the victory.
Gilas will take on Iran in the battle for fifth on Sunday.
Amos got back to his dominant form, finishing with 21 points and six rebounds. Abadam got 14 points and six rebounds while Gagate tallied eight points, 14 rebounds, and two blocks.
Jared Bahay added 14 points as Mur Alao sat out the game.
Wei Chieh Yeh led Chinese-Taipei with 17 points built on three treys. Te Chi Hsu produced 16 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
The Scores:
Philippines 72 –– Amos 21, Abadam 14, Bahay 14, Gagate 8, Gamber 5, Nacua 5, Pablo 3, Coronel 1, Demisana 0, Andres 0, Porter 0.
Chinese-Taipei 67 — Wei 17, Te 16, Chun YK 12, Chun SC 9, Lu 4, Ming HC 3, Hsuan 3, Ming JX 3, Yi 0, Tzu 0, Yu 0.
Quarterscores: 12-19, 35-27, 59-43, 72-67.
