MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas’ fourth quarter uprising fell short. They suffered a 90-83 defeat to Italy in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Down by as much as 18 points early in the fourth quarter, Gilas Pilipinas got conversions from AJ Edu and Jordan Clarkson and a three-point play from Dwight Ramos to cut the deficit to 68-80.
Italy widened the lead anew to 85-68 after a triple by Giampaolo Ricci and a layup by Simone Fontecchio but triples by Roger Pogoy and Kiefer Ravena and inside hits by Clarkson, Ramos and Jamie Malonzo cut the deficit to 81-88.
Gilas Pilipinas still had a chance to come closer but Ravena misfired on his three-point try before the Italians sealed the victory on two free throws by Alessandro Pajola with 32 seconds left.
Fontecchio top-scored for Italy with 18 points. Ricci added 14 markers with four triples. Marco Spissu and Stefano Tonut ended with 13 each, while Pajola and Nicolo Melli ended with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Italy finished second in Group A with 2-1 slate.
Meanwhile, Clarkson finished with 23 points, seven rebounds and six assist. Ramos added 14 markers as Gilas Pilipinas finished their group stage with 0-3 record, relegating them to the classification phase.
Meanwhile, Germany recovered from a slow start to score a 101-75 victory over Finland and punched a seat to the round-of-16 of the World Cup over at the Okinawa Arena in Okinawa, Japan.
Dennis Schroder and Isaac Bonga top-scored with 15 points apiece, while Johannes Thiemann, Moritz Wagner and Andreas Obst added 13, 12 and 11 markers, respectively, for Germany, which closed the group stage with 3-0 record.
Australia Boomers also made sure that they won’t be victimized by host Japan’s upset axe as it scored a wire-to-wire 109-89 victory to also reach the round-of-16 of the tournament with a 2-1 slate.
Josh Giddey led the way with double-double 26 points and 11 assists, while Xavier Cooks also finished with double-double 24 points and 16 rebounds for the Australians, which bounced back from a shock 85-82 loss to Germany last Sunday./PN
BOX SCORE:
ITALY 90 – Fontecchio 18, Ricci 14, Spissu 13, Tonut 13, Pajola 11, Melli 10, Polonara 6, Datome 5, Severini 0.
PHILIPPINES 83 – Clarkson 23, Ramos 14, Pogoy 9, Abando 8, Edu 8, Ravena 8, Malonzo 7, Fajardo 4, Sotto 2, Thompson 0, Aguilar 0, Perez 0.
Quarterscores: 20-23, 48-39, 73-60, 90-83.
