Gilas secures Asia Cup spot

MANILA, Philippines — Target achieved.

Staying on task against a smaller, outgunned opponent, Gilas Pilipinas overwhelmed Hong Kong, 93-54, to sweep its two assignments in Window 2 of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers last night at the MOA Arena.

The 39-point romp came on the heels of the historic 93-89 stunner over world No. 22 New Zealand and jacked up the Nationals’ overall record in Group B to 4-0.

This should be enough to guarantee their spot in next year’s Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

And the Filipinos will formally qualify if the Tall Blacks (2-1) prevail over Chinese Taipei (1-2) in their showdown today over in Christchurch. At 0-4, Hong Kong is out of it all.

Carl Tamayo pumped in 16 points spiked by two triples off the bench to take scoring cudgels for Gilas as it posted a repeat of its 94-64 rout of HK on the road in the opening window last February.

Twin towers June Mar Fajardo (with 14 points and eight rebounds) and Kai Sotto (12-15) anchored a nearly unstoppable inside game that saw Gilas punching in 50 points inside the paint against 18 by the visitors and getting 24 second-chance points off 22 offensive boards.

As his teammates stepped up offensively, Justin Brownlee produced 13 with three boards and three dimes in a reduced 24-minute outing.

Though enjoying a huge advantage in size and firepower, the troops of coach Tim Cone didn’t take HK for granted.

“We wanted to respect the opponent and respect the game of basketball and go out and play hard,” said Sotto, who followed up his sterling 19-10-7 performance against NZ with a double-double versus Hong Kong.

With the 7-foot-3 Sotto and the 6-foot-10 Fajardo making a killing inside, Gilas created an early 20-10 separation before settling for a 25-16 margin after the first 10 minutes. They went into the half time break up by 10, 45-35.