Gilas clobbers Malaysia in SEA Games basket opener

Gilas Pilipinas’ Michael Phillips scores on a two-handed dunk on a fastbreak against Malaysia. PHOTO COURTESY OF PAOLO DEL ROSARIO/CIGNAL ONE SPORTS
Gilas Pilipinas’ Michael Phillips scores on a two-handed dunk on a fastbreak against Malaysia. PHOTO COURTESY OF PAOLO DEL ROSARIO/CIGNAL ONE SPORTS

MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas kicked off its 32nd Southeast Asian Games campaign with a 94-49 rout of Malaysia on Tuesday at the Morodok Techno National Stadium in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser led the Philippines’ offense with 13 points, with 11 coming in the opening quarter, while Justin Brownlee and Arvin Tolentino chipped in 11 and 10 points, respectively.

Michael Phillips almost had a double-double in his Gilas Pilipinas debut with 15 rebounds and nine points to go with five steals, while Marcio Lassiter also contributed nine points, built on three outside conversions.

Gilas Pilipinas zoomed to an early 9-2 start behind early baskets from Oftana, Perez and Christian Standhardinger but Malaysians answered with back-to-back triples to cut the deficit to 8-11.

Ganuelas-Rosser and Jerom Lastimosa took turns on the offensive end as they build a 33-12 advantage, which later grew to 58-22 at the half behind Gilas’ outside shooting in the second quarter.

Malaysia showed some offense early in the third period with consecutive three-point bombs but Gilas Pilipinas were quick to answer with their own outside baskets from Tolentino and Chris Newsome.

The offense of the national team, however, dipped in the fourth quarter as they were outscored by the Malaysians, 11-10, as Phillips, Ganuelas-Rosser and Mason Amos misfired their close-range baskets.

Gilas Pilipinas will resume their campaign on Thursday evening against host Cambodia, which will parade three naturalized players from United States and three more American-Cambodian players.

In gymnastics, Carlos Edriel Yulo nabbed another gold medal in the men’s parallel bars with 14.85 points. He settled for silver in the rings with 14.000 points, short to the 14.200 of Vietnam’s Van Khanh.

Juancho Miguel Besana also chipped in a gold medal in men’s vault with his 14.425 points performance, while John Ivan Cruz also got a gold in men’s floor exercise with 13.85 points./PN

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here