The Gilas Pilipinas bounced back from their previous loss and defeated Japan in the second round of FIBA Asia Championship with an impressive 90-71 beating of Japan on Monday, August 5, 2013 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Watch the highlights video of Japan vs. Philippines:
The Gilas boys wanted to forget their sorry loss during the last game against Chinese Taipei and focused on defense and their offensive prowess to subdue the young but talented Japanese national team. The first quarter was a close one, but after that, Gilas high-leaping forward Japeth Aguilar made a two sensational dunks that broke the spirit of the Japanese.
The Philippines was leading with 10 points after the first half with the score at 46-36, but in the third quarter, the Gilas was hot on the outside led by Jeff Chan who opened the second half with back-to-back three-pointers to kick off a 17-4 run and gave Gilas a 63-40 lead.
The highest lead of Gilas Pilipinas was recorded at 26 points, the team didn’t lead by less than 16 points until the final buzzer. The Gilas made an impressive defense and even stealing the ball 10 times and hounding Japan to just 37% shooting from the field. The team also forced Japan to commit 17 turnovers that the team turn into 22 points.
Here’s the top scorers for Gilas Pilipinas:
- Marcus Douthit – 19 points, 10 rebounds, 3 (–foul word(s) removed–)ists
- Jeff Chan – 16 points
- Ranidel de Ocampo – 9 points
- LA Tenorio – 9 points
- Jason William – 7 points
- Japeth Aguilar – 7 points
- Gabe Norwood – 7 points
- Jimmy Alapag – 6 points,
- Gary David – 5 points
- Larry Fonacier – 3 points
- Marc Pingris – 2 points
The highlights of the game will added here as soon as available:
