Team captain Adducul again played the stellar role with 13 points, nine rebounds and six assists as the Philippines was assured of its best finish of second place here. Prior to this, the best performance ever by a Philippine team was in 1990 when Philips Sardines, under coach Joe Lipa, placed third.
Erwin Sotto and Ranidel de Ocampo ably backed up Adducul with 13 and 12 points, respectively.
This same spunk in offense is what they will be needing when the Filipinos battle Shan Dong of China in the championship game set at 2:30 p.m. today.
China, which boasts of the tallest line-up in this tourney, defeated Thailand in the other game, 86-70.
The Philippines, which is coached by Johny Tam, is coming off a 66-61 win over Malaysia.