Gilas 5 succumbs to Jordanians

MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas bowed to Al Riyadi Amarex of Jordan, 65-75, in a second straight defeat that denied the Filipinos outright semifinal entry in the 24th Dubai International Basketball Tournament late Monday (early Tuesday morning in Manila) at Al Ahli Sports Club in Dubai, UAE.

Just like in their loss to Al Ahli Saturday, the Phl training team failed to contain Amarex’ explosive imports, suffering another setback that gave them a tough match-up in Sagesee Beirut of Lebanon in the knockout quarterfinals.

Gilas and Sagesee fight for a slot in the Final Four tomorrow.

The other quarterfinal pairings pit Al Riyadi-Lebanon versus Al Mouttahed Tripoli and Al Ahli against the UAE national team.

As the topnotcher in Group B play, Al Riyadi Amarex gained outright entry into the semis.

Only three teams slugged it out in Group A with a team from Kazakhstan backing out of the tourney at the last minute.

Bangura, an African hotshot who had tours of duty as import of Air21 in the PBA, erupted for 31 points with Dorsey also proving a big thorn for the Filipinos.

“Tried hard but (Darwin) Dorsey & (Alpha) Bangura just 2 good, 2 experienced for our kids. But we fought til the end. Now we need 2 beat Sagesse 4 d final 4,” said Gilas coach Chot Reyes on his Twitter account.