Gilas finished top of Group E after they beat Hong Kong 67-55 last night and Qatar defeated Taiwan 71-68 earlier in the day.
Fans expected the hosts to brush aside a Hong Kong team still searching for their first win of the tournament.
“They came out and pushed us and really challenged us to compete. They outhustled us for three and half quarters. We played poorly,” said Gabe Norwood.
Gilas went into the half trailing 33-28, and the team had to wait until the last minutes of the 4th quarter to finally take a double digit lead in the match.
“I really thought we could have played a lot better tonight. There’s no such thing as a sure win” said coach Reyes.
Gilas Pilipinas will play Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals on Friday at 8.30pm at the Malls of Asia Arena.
To keep you occupied until the glorious Gilas Pilipinas return to the court on Friday, Coconuts Manila has compiled some of the team’s finest moments thus far in the FIBA Asia Championship.
LA Tenorio, who has not had much game time in the tournament, helped Gilas overcome a tricky first game against Saudi Arabia with a team high 12 points.
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Jayson Castro scored seven points in the third quarter against Jordan and finished the match with 16 points in a match Gilas won 77-71.
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The loss to Taiwan was hard to take, but Larry Fonacier left the match with his head held high as he scored 16 of his 21 points, most of them three-pointers, in the third quarter.
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An out of form Gary David was lifted by the cheers of the Mall of Asia Arena crowd during the final moments of the game against Japan. [[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_large”,”fid”:”18117″,”attributes”:{“alt”:”FIBA Asia 2013: Smart Gilas Pilipinas vs Japan Final Moments Crowd cheers on Gary David”,”class”:”media-image”,”style”:”line-height: 1.538em;”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”}}]]
Gabe Norwood restricted Qatar’s naturalized former NBA player Jarvis Hayes to 41 percent shooting.
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Gilas’ win against Hong Kong means the host nation avoid China, for now.
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Photos: FIBA Asia
