MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas Youth was run over by Russia from start to finish to suffer a 64-92 defeat at the close of the seeding round of the 2019 FIBA Under-19 World Cup on Tuesday night (Wednesday in Manila) at the Heraklion University Hall in Greece.
With the third straight loss, the national youth basketball team ended up as the no. 4 seed in Pool C and will take on Pool D’s top team and world no. 4 Serbia on Wednesday night.
The Russians got its shooting going right from the tip off as they jumped to a 16-4 edge en route to a 28-15 advantage after the first 10 minutes before widening it to 49-30 at the half.
The Gilas Pilipinas Youth was unable to recover from their first half deficit as the Russians continued with their offense to build its biggest lead at 89-59 with over a minute to play.
Kai Sotto, who averaged 15.0 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 4.5 blocks in the first two games, was held down to just 14 points and seven rebounds to go along with six block shots.
Dave Ildefonso, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds against Argentina on Sunday, also had 14 points, six rebounds, five assists, and two steals but went just 5-of-14 from the field.
Aleksandr Ershov led Russia with 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting, while center Nikita Mikhailovskii tallied double-double 16 points and 10 rebounds while also converting four outside hits./PN
