MANILA – Batang Gilas clinched an outright quarterfinals seat in the 2018 FIBA U18 Asian Championship after taking down China 73-63 Tuesday night at Stadium 29 in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
Sean Dave Ildefonso led the way with 18 points, Filipino-Nigerian Ariel John Edu added double-double 13 points and 14 rebounds, while Dalph Panopio contributed 12 points and eight rebounds for Batang Gilas.
Batang Gilas will face the winner in the Bahrain-Chinese Taipei qualifier match in the knockout quarterfinals tonight to secure one of the four slots in the FIBA U19 World Cup.
Hanging on to a slim 31-27 lead at the half, the Philippines went on a huge third quarter run, highlighted by back-to-back triples from Ildefonso, to surge to a 51-33 advantage.
The Filipinos were still ahead 60-47 with six minutes left in the match when China slowly clawed its way back with inside conversions to come to within 59-65. But Batang Gilas got hits from Panopio and Kai Sotto for a 67-59 edge.
China made its last push 62-68 after a 3-pointer from Weize Jiang. Four free throw conversions by Miguel Oczon coupled with a block shot by Edu on a China triple try sealed the win for Batang Gilas.
Haowen Guo top scored with 24 points while Haoran Jiang and Quanze Wang added 14 and 13 markers, respectively, for China, which was relegated to the Wednesday qualifier round./PN
