MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas failed to score a repeat against Congo with an 82-71 defeat in the 2019 Torneo de Malaga pocket tournament on Friday night (Saturday in Manila) in Malaga, Spain.
With the defeat, the nine-man national men’s basketball team was relegated to the battle-for-third place game against either Ivory Coast or host Spain on Saturday night (Sunday in Manila).
The Philippines opened the match with a 9-4 score on hits from Andray Blatche and John Paul Erram but Congo leaned on its inside and outside conversions to come to within 18-21.
Gilas Pilipinas went on to build a 28-20 advantage early in the second on fastbreak plays from Jaymar Perez and Robert Bolick but the Congo clawed its way back to within 32-33 at the half.
Both teams traded advantages early in the third period with the score tied 43-all before Congo used their advantage inside to surge to a 62-55 edge midway in the fourth quarter.
It was all Congo since then as their outside hit connected to build its largest lead at 76-61 with less than five minutes in the match. Gilas Pilipinas tried to trim the deficit but could only come to as close as 11 points.
Bolick top-scored with 21 points for the Joseller “Yeng” Guiao-mentored national squad as Blatche was held to just 15 markers in the contest./PN
