Gilas Pilipinas’ under-18 boys team will be entering the quarterfinals of the 2022 FIBA Asia Under-18 Championship as the top seed after toppling Chinese-Taipei,84-73, Tuesday at Azadi Basketball Hall in Tehran, Iran.
And it was all thanks to the take charge performance of one Mason Amos.
Amos, who was averaging 22.5 points in the Philippines’ first two games, dropped 28 points on 12-of-20 shooting from the field, 4-of-10 from deep. The 6-foot-7 Ateneo-commit also got six rebounds.
And the 18-year-old was unstoppable in the final frame.
Down 63-64 with 7:49 left in the game, Amos sank a three-pointer that ignited a 10-2 spurt. The run was capped by another Amos trey.
An Amos three with two minutes left then gave Gilas a 79-68 lead and the sweep of the pool.
James Nacua supported Amos with 16 points built on four treys while Jared Bahay dished out 10 assists with eight points and five rebounds.
The Philippines also defeated Syria (112-48) and Qatar (77-61). However, FIBA will not count the Qatar game in the quotient tally for seeding as Groups A and B only have three teams.
Chun Sheng Chang paced Chinese-Taipei with 24 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the field. Te Chi Hsu and Chun Yen Kuo got 14 and 11 points, respectively.
The Scores:
Philippines 84 – Amos 28, Nacua 16, Coronel 9, Gagate 9, Bahay 8, Pablo 5, Gamber 4, Alao 3, Abadam 2, Porter 0, Demisana 0.
Chinese-Taipei 73 – Chun SC 24, Te 14, Chun YK 11, Ming HC 6, Lu 5, Tzu 4, Yi 3, Hsuan 3, Yu 3, Ming JX 0, Bo 0.
Quarterscores: 28-20, 42-39, 60-63, 84-73.
