HANGZHOU – Gilas Pilipinas pounded Qatar, 80-41, and punched a ticket to the quarterfinals of the 19th Asian Games.
The Filipinos made their intentions known right away when they raced to a 21-8 lead just five minutes into the game at the Zijingang gymnasium at the Zhejiang University.
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They led 57-23 at the break and were never threatened by the Qataris the rest of the way.
The national team won’t have time to celebrate the victory as it returns to the court by noontime of Tuesday to meet Pool A top seed Iran at the start of the men’s basketball quarterfinals.
"Basically after the first quarter, it turned into a practice," said coach Tim Cone of the Qatar game, which Gilas used to prepare for Iran.
Iran, now in the post Hamed Haddadi era, will be coming to the game fresh from a two-day break after beating Kazakhstan, 86-60, to complete a three-game sweep of its group.
Gilas bounces back
Meanwhile, the win over Qatar allowed Gilas to bounce back from an 87-62 loss to Jordan that denied the team an outright quarterfinals berth.
For the first time in the meet, Justin Brownlee yielded the scoring honors to big man June Mar Fajardo, who finished with 12 points, the same output of San Miguel teammate CJ Perez.
Calvin Oftana, whose long-range shooting was badly missed by Gilas the past few games, finally came to life by going 3-of-4 from three point range for 11 points.
Brownlee had nine points and five rebounds in just eight minutes of play, getting much-needed rest ahead of the knockout game against Iran.
Ange Kouame was the big protector at the rim for the national team with a game-high 10 rebounds and three block shots, while scoring eight points.
“We want to get off quick and get the lead so we could bring Justin out of the game and have him ready for tomorrow against Iran. That was one of our main goals and we’re able to do that,” added Cone.
Gilas totally outplayed Qatar, although of significant number was the turnovers of the team with a high of 22.
The scores:
Philippines (80) – Fajardo 12, Perez 12, Oftana 11, Brownlee 9, Aguilar 9, Kouame 8, Alas 8, Tolentino 6, Thompson 3, Newsome 2.
Qatar (41) – Muslic 12, Ndoye 7, Mousa 5, Ndao 5, Lashin 4, Haracic 3, Dieng 2, Advic 2, Darwish 1.
Quarterscores: 33-14; 57-23; 73-30; 80-41.
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