MASON Amos delivered the crushing blows as Gilas Pilipinas Youth completed a Group C sweep with an 84-73 come-from-behind victory over Chinese Taipei in the 2022 Fiba Under-18 Asian Championship on Tuesday at the Azadi Basketball Hall in Tehran.
The bulky Fil-Aussie forward dropped 13 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter, to go with six rebounds and three assists in the Philippines' third win in as many games in the continental youth showcase.
His biggest was a shot clock-beating trey with 2:05 left that made it a 79-68 affair in favor of the Filipinos and effectively took the air out of the Taiwanese's sails.
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James Nacua also waxed hot with four treys in his 16 points, Joshua Coronel stepped up with nine points and seven boards, and Seven Gagate did his share with nine points and three rebounds as Gilas Youth heads to the quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed.
The top eight teams across three groups will be drawn into their quarterfinal pairings at the end of pool play.
The Philippines had to fight back from a 10-point third-quarter deficit as a raging Chinese Taipei team took a 57-47 lead midway through the frame. The boys of coach Josh Reyes also had to endure 18 turnovers which led to 22 easy points for the opposition.
Still, it was enough for Gilas Youth to add Chinese Taipei to its list of victims after blasting Syria, 112-48, on Sunday and staving off Qatar, 77-61, on Monday.
Chun Sheng Chang led Chinese Taipei with 24 points on 4-of-11 shooting from deep, to go with six boards and two steals, but he couldn't save the Taiwanese from their first loss in three games.
The scores:
PHILIPPINES 84 - Amos 28, Nacua 16, Coronel 9, Gagate 9, Bahay 8, Pablo 5, Gamber 4, Alao 3, Abadam 2, Porter 0, Demisana 0.
CHINESE TAIPEI 73 - Chun SC 24, Te 14, Chun YK 11, Ming HC 6, Lu 5, Tzu 4, Yi 3, Hsuan 3, Yu 3, Ming JX 0, Bo 0.
Quarters: 28-20, 42-39, 60-63, 84-73.
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