MANILA – Batang Gilas suffered a 54-60 defeat to China in the semifinals of the FIBA Under-16 Asian Championship at the Foshan Lingnan Mingzhu Gymnasium in Guangdong.
Both teams were in a tight exchange in the first two quarters Saturday night, with China holding on to a slim 32-29 lead at the half. It pulled away in the third period to build a 48-36 edge.
Batang Gilas did not gave up, launching its own rally in the fourth quarter behind Kai Sotto and Terrence Fortea to come to as close as 53-57 with over a minute left in the match.
With 1:06 remaining, Saimati Xierzhati managed to clean up China’s mess before finding Sun Haoqin for the dagger 3-point play to raise their lead 60-53.
Sun top-scored with double-double 22 points and 11 rebounds for China, which will face Australia in the gold medal match set Sunday night.
Sotto finished with double-double 26 points and 21 rebounds while Fortea chipped in 18 markers for Batang Gilas, which will try to salvage a third place finish against New Zealand.
Even with this defeat, the Philippine boys basketball team will still advance to the 2017 FIBA Under-17 World Cup just for reaching the semifinals of the qualifying tournament./PN
