INCHEON, South Korea — Thanks to Kazakhstan, Gilas Pilipinas still has a chance to make the semifinals of the 17th Asian Games.
Now the Filipinos need to beat the Kazakhs to make it to the semis through the backdoor.
A quest for the gold medal that looked doomed after the Philippines dropped a sorry 95-97 defeat to host Korea on Saturday was revived after the unfancied Kazakhs dealt Qatar a 65-57 loss later in the day at the Hwaseong Sports Complex.
Qatar was the same team that dealt Gilas 68-77 setback a day earlier.
[See Douthit status uncertain for Kazakhstan match after benching]
But with the Qataris falling to Kazakhstan, Gilas now has a chance to make it to the crossover semifinals by forging a three-way tie for second place at the end of Group H play in the quarterfinals.
To do that, the Filipinos must beat Kazakhstan by more than 10 points in their 2:30 p.m. match on Sunday and hope that Qatar loses to Korea. Such a scenario will have the three teams ending up with similar 1-2 records, thereby putting the quotient system in play.
Kazakhstan, however, will become the No. 2 seed with a win over Gilas or a loss in single digits and a Korea win over Qatar.
Qatar can reach the semis either with a win over Korea or a Kazakhstan loss to Gilas.
Dmitriy Gavrilov finished with 22 points to lead Kazakhs to victory against the Qataris, who play the undefeated Koreans on Sunday at 7:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m. Manila time) at the Hwaseong Sports Complex.
[See Gilas coach Chot Reyes apologizes for letting fans down]
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