MANILA – Meralco Bolts-Philippines clinched a much-needed win in the 2018 FIBA Asia Champions Cup with a 96-63 drubbing of Al Riyadi of Lebanon at Stadium 29 in Nonthaburi, Thailand.
Garvo Lanete and Diamond Stone led the Philippines with 20 points apiece while Rommel Niño Canaleta added 18, including four 3-point conversions, as they finished their Group B assignment Saturday night with a 1-3 slate.
The lopsided victory was just enough for the Philippines to force a three-way tie with Al Riyadi and Mono Vampire at the No. 2 spot in the group – and advance to the semifinals by virtue of superior quotient.
No one thought the Philippines will be able to pull off the one-sided win against Al Riyadi – the defending champions – after the former dropped their first two matches against Mono Vampire of Thailand (92-100) and Alvark Tokyo of Japan (73-84).
In the semifinals staring Monday night, the Philippines will face Group A’s top-seed Petrochimi of Iran, which is led by national team mainstays Meisam Mirzaei, Sajjad Mashayekhi, Benham Yakhchali, Valid Dalirzahan, Asghar Kardoust, Mohammad Jamshidi, Rouzbeh Arghavan, and Arsalan Kazemi.
Trailing 23-26 at the end of the opening quarter on Saturday, the Philippines went on a huge 15-0 scoring run at the onset of the second canto, capped by back-to-back triples by Canaleta for a 49-33 halftime lead.
Lebanon was unable to recover from the huge deficit, allowing the Philippines to pull away further to as high as 30-plus points in the second half with outside hits from Lanete, Antonio Jose Caram and Stone.
Bassel Bawji led Lebanon with 19 points and six rebounds while Mark Lyons chipped in 14 markers before he got ejected late in the match after committing a second motion./PN
