BOCAUE - Chot Reyes heaped praise on the second unit of the Philippine men’s basketball team which delivered in the 107-96 win over Lebanon on Friday in the sixth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers at the Philippine Arena.
Reyes singled out Jamie Malonzo and newbie Mason Amos for sparking the Gilas bench mob and inspiring other players to join in.
Malonzo finished with 15 points including a pair of highlight-reel slams, while Amos had 13 points while going a perfect 5-of-5 from the field.
READ: Gilas buries Lebanon in a hail of threes
Reyes said the strong showing of both Malonzo and Amos were the key to the win that avenged the Philippines’ loss to the same team back in August during the fourth window, 85-81.
“Off the bench those two guys, because they’re basically our bigs off the bench after June Mar [Fajardo] and Justin (Brownlee). Basically, it was only Jamie and Mason that we had because we were decimated with the lack of our other big players,” said the national coach.
“The fact that they both played well was big factor.”
Reyes also had a lot of nice words for the 18-year-old Amos, an incoming freshman at Ateneo de Manila.
“He still has a lot to learn, a lot to develop especially on defense. But you can see his shooting prowess for a big man and that’s a weapon we can continue to exploit moving forward,” he said of Amos.

The young Gilas big scored 11 of his output in the third quarter, where he went 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.
“We’re happy with that development,” added Reyes. “Being that they were the two bigs off the second unit, the way the two of them played was a reflection of how well the second unit delivered.”
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