MANILA – A dream start by Gilas Pilipinas ended in disaster. They suffered an 80-70 defeat to Angola in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Philippine men’s basketball team had the expected strong start against Angola. They led 19-12 behind the exploits of Jaymar Perez to end the first quarter, which later reached its biggest at 28-17 at the onset of the second quarter on an AJ Edu dunk.
But Gilas Pilipinas committed turnover after turnover. They allowed Angola to tie the score at 28-all. Jordan Clarkson regained the lead for Gilas at 30-28 but a continued run by Angola allowed them to take a 36-33 halftime lead.
With the momentum and confidence on their side, Angola continued to hang on to the advantage in the third quarter at 56-52, which grew to as high as 73-57 on consecutive triples by Gerson Domingos.
Gilas, however, made its last push on consecutive hits by Clarkson, Rhenz Abando and Edu and two free throws by Kai Sotto to cut the deficit to 68-73 but a booming triple by Domingos with under a minute left sealed the win for Angola.
Gerson Goncalves led the way for Angola (1-1) with 17 points, Domingos and Bruno Fernando added 15 and 14 markers, respectively, while Jilson Bango and Silvio de Souza ended with 10 points each.
Clarkson was the lone double-digit scorer for Gilas Pilipinas (0-2) with 21 points, Edu chipped in nine markers, while Sotto, Roger Pogoy and Dwight Ramos ended with eight each.
Meanwhile, Dominican Republic moved closer to the second round of the competition after an 87-82 upset win over Italy. The Dominicans improved to 2-0 win-loss slate, while the Italians dropped to 1-1.
Trailing by a point at the half, the Dominicans went on a huge 21-6 scoring blast in the third quarter behind outside shots by Karl-Anthony Towns and Andres Feliz to establish a 59-45 lead.
The Dominicans’ advantage went up to as high as 17 points in the fourth quarter after a triple by Angel Delgado before the Italians made a late run but could only come to as close as five points.
Anthony-Towns top-scored for the Dominicans with 24 points, including four three-point conversions, to go with 11 rebounds, Feliz added 24 markers, while Delgado contributed 12 points and nine rebounds.
Montenegro also inched closer to the next phase of the tournament after an 89-74 win over Egypt, Germany also went 2-0 after an 85-82 upset over Australia, while Canada hacked out a 128-73 demolition of Lebanon to notch its second win in as many games./PN
BOX SCORE:
ANGOLA 80 – Goncalves 17, Domingos 15, Fernando 14, De Souza 10, Bango 10, Dundao 4, Kakila 4, Francisco 3, Paulo 2, Monteiro 1, Fernandes 0, Maconda 0.
PHILIPPINES 70 – Clarkson 21, Edu 9, Pogoy 8, Ramos 8, Sotto 8, Perez 7, Fajardo 4, Ravena 3, Abando 2, Thompson 0, Aguilar 0, Malonzo 0.
Quarterscores: 12-19, 36-33, 56-54, 80-70.
