SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Another day, another demolition job for Gilas Pilipinas Youth.
The Philippines put up another scoring masterclass against Thailand, 87-42, for a perfect opening weekend in the FIBA U16 Asia Cup SEABA Qualifiers on Sunday at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center.
Newly-crowned UAAP Season 87 Finals MVP Gab delos Reyes came off the bench to lead the scoring parade with 16 points and nine rebounds in a fitting follow-up to the 116-62 romp over Vietnam on Saturday.
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His fellow Mythical Five slasher Andwele Cabañero fueled the Philippines’ blazing start with 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting in just 14 minutes of play while FEU-Diliman’s Prince Cariño added 11 points and seven boards.
At 2-0 (win-loss), the nationals remained one of only two unbeaten teams in the six-nation field along with Indonesia, which beat Singapore and Malaysia by a winning margin of 21.5 points.
Winning his first two games as head coach by 49 points on average won't sway LA Tenorio into believing that the young nationals are already at the top of their game.
In fact, it's everything but that for the 40-year-old mentor.
"Still a lot of things that we have to really work on aside from yesterday, Yes, we won today, we won again, but we really have to get better sa mga iba pang bagay. Marami pa. Maraming pa kaming lapses," Tenorio said.
"Every time we watch the video [of our games], nakikita yung mga lapses. Hopefully, the next games, we'll get better para by the end of this tournament, masabi namin na nagawa namin yung mga dapat namin gawin."
Gilas Youth will enter the halfway mark of the qualifiers with a game against a winless Singapore team on Monday.
Lessons were clearly learned from Gilas Youth’s sluggish 4-13 start in its tournament opener against the Vietnamese as the hosts went on to fire 31 straight points to begin its relentless takeover of the Thais.
Only a free throw from Alexander Junior David with 9.2 seconds left in the opening frame spared Thailand from a scoreless opening frame.
Even after a sorry first stretch, the Thais were able to douse the Gilas fire by outscoring the home team in the second quarter, 19-16.
That second-quarter stand turned out to be the Thais’ only sliver of hope as the Philippines held it to just nine points in the third and sealed the win from there.
They might not have hit the 100-point mark again but the Philippines demonstrated its dominance inside the paint with a game-high 77 rebounds.
The scores:
Philippines (87) - De Los Reyes 16, Cariño 15, Cruz 12, Cabañero 10, Hallare 6, T. Pascual 6, J. Pascual 4, Tan-Chi 4, Miranda 4, Lumagub 4, Antolin 3, Restificar 3.
Thailand (42) - Jaeger 8, Korkaewkulapat 7, Ravazzini 7, David 6, Pearach 6, Wilairoj 5, Anansutthiphot 3, Allsopp 0, Boonsrang 0, Butnuch 0.
Quarterscores: 31-1; 47-20; 61-29; 87-42.
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