MANILA – The Philippines suffered an 82-91 heartbreaking loss at the hands of South Korea in the knockout quarterfinals of the 2018 Asian Games men’s basketball on Monday at the Gelora Bung Karno Basketball Hall in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Jordan Clarkson led the Philippines’ scoring with 25 points while Christian Standhardinger added 16 markers, nine rebounds, three assists, and three steals.
“I take responsibility for our loss,” Philippine head coach Yeng Guiao said. “We will just go all out for a fifth place finish now that we are already out of the medal contention.”
The Filipinos were relegated to the consolation round where it will have a chance to improve on the seventh place finish of the Gilas Pilipinas team in the 2014 edition in Incheon, South Korea.
On Monday the Koreans – the defending champion – had the upperhand in the opening quarter on inside conversions from naturalized center Ricardo Ratliffe but the Philippines rallied back for a 31-all score on a triple by Chris Tiu.
The Philippines eked out a lead of up to 5 points with Standhardinger converting from the inside but Ratliffe bullied his way inside as South Korea rallied to within 42-44 at the half.
In the third quarter the Philippines went up by as high as 8 points with baskets from Standhardinger and Clarkson but triples from South Korea cut the deficit 67-68.
South Korea took control of the match in the fourth quarter with triples from Heo Ilyung, Jeon Junbeom and Kim Sunhyung for a 13-point spread. Clarkson and Paul Lee pushed the last run for the Philippine but managed to come to as close as only 9 points.
Ratliffe finished the match with double-double 30 points and 14 rebounds while Kim and Heo chipped in 17 markers apiece for South Korea./PN
