Delegates of the Philippine team in FIBA Asia Championship enters to the Semi final round of the tournament after beating the team of Chinese Taipei in a score of 95-78.
Smart Gilas Pilipinas has (–foul word(s) removed–)ured its spot in the quarterfinals of FIBA Asia which is something that many have been expecting since the start of the game.
The Philippine team is one of the early favorites and bets of basketball fans to make it in the finals even before the start of FIBA Asia. They have a current standing of 5-1 win loss record.
Marcus Douthit has showed an impressive performance in the game as he gathered 37 points for the team. Marcio L(–foul word(s) removed–)iter had 13 points and Ranidel de Ocampo contributed 18 points.
Gilas had been confident and full of enthusiast during the match were they have maintained there lead from the first half until the fourth quarter.
They managed to take a lead of 3 points in half time and had their biggest lead in fourth quarter with 19 points.
The team of Chinese Taipei has tried to trim down the lead of Gilas in the fourth quarter but came short as the Smart Gilas continue to play all out in the court.
The Philippine team will be facing again the squad from Jordan on their next match in semi to steal a spot for the finals. Jordan won over the defending champion Iran with a score of 88-84.
Indeed the Smart Gilas entering to the semi finals is something that filipino’s should be proud of, this is the first time that the Philippine delegate has made it this close to finals since 1987.