Gilas bucks bad shooting to arrange QF duel vs Kazakhstan

Games on Friday

(Mall of Asia Arena)

10:30 a.m. – Bahrain vs Hong Kong

12:45 p.m. – Japan vs India

3 p.m. – Iran vs Jordan

5:45 p.m. – Chinese Taipei vs China

8:30 p.m. – Philippines vs Kazakhstan

10:30 p.m. – Korea vs Qatar

MANILA, Philippines -- By quirks of fate, Gilas Pilipinas is taking a smoother road to the medal round of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship.

With the opening provided by Qatar, Team Phl sneaked in to the top of their group and thus gained lighter opponent in Kazakhstan in the quarterfinal round of the Asian cage conclave at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City Wednesday night. 

The Nationals overcame a bad shooting night and withstood the gritty the Hong Kong squad, 67-55, to complete the job, avoiding a dangerous Final Eight showdown with defending champion China.

Qatar gave the home team a good break to grab Group E top spot as the Gulf champ stopped the erstwhile unbeaten Chinese Taipei team, 71-68, earlier in the day.

As Gilas hurdled Hong Kong, the Nationals forced a three-way deadlock on top with the Taiwanese and the Qataris.

In the application of the FIBA tiebreak system, the Filipinos emerged the best team with a plus five differential points as against the Taiwanese’s plus two and the Qataris’ minus seven.

The fourth and last quarters seat in the group went to Jordan which clobbered Japan, 65-56.

The tourney takes another breather today before resuming tomorrow with the Philippines matched up with Kazakhstan, Taipei versus China, Qatar against South Korea and Jordan opposite Iran in the Final Eight.

“We came here with the mindset that we needed to win by 16 (to be the No. 1 team in Group E). But after we led by 12, we didn’t have enough gas left,” said Qatar coach Tom Wisman.

“Other than that, we wanted to win the game. We play every game to win,” Wisman added.

The Qataris ending up short in their bid opened the opportunity for the Filipinos to face the Kazakhs -- the Group F fourth placers who were down to nine men in their final game in the elims.

Out on injuries were naturalized guard Jerry Johnson, Mikhail Yevstigneyev and Konstantin Dvirny as they were dumped by the Iranians, 53-85.

After sweeping lowly rivals Bahrain, India and Thailand in the first round, Kazakhstan dropped all its second-round games versus heavyweights Korea, China and Iran.

Meanwhile, the injury-hit Yi Jianlian warmed up for the quarters, helping China to an 88-66 whipping of Bahrain. The Chinese star logged 12 points and six rebounds in his first game in their last five outings.

Against the fierce-fighting Hong Kong side helped in training by Filipino coach Derrick Pumaren, Gilas needed to dig deep before pulling off what was expected to be an easy win.

“There’s really no such thing as sure win, easy win here. We didn’t want to play Marcus (Douthit) so many minutes but we came out flat,” said Gilas coach Chot Reyes.

In a scary sight for the home fans, the Nationals nailed their first basket already four minutes into the game and got their first taste of the lead with just five minutes left in the second quarter.

And Hong Kong stayed close behind until Gabe Norwood struck with a clutch five-point binge making it an eight-point game in the last two minutes of play. 

Walloped by 10 by the Filipinos the previous night, the Qataris tried hard to bounce back strong, making a serious run at beating the Taiwanese by at least 16.

“I’m proud of my players. I can’t ask anything on what they gave today,” said Wisman whose team was led by veteran Yasseen Musa with a superb double-double 20 points and 19 rebounds.

They came out triumphant but short of their target to be the group topnotcher.

The Taiwanese waged a big chase, tying the count at 68-all on a 12-to-nothing run, but the Qataris salvaged the game on a drive by Mosa Daoud and a free throw by Jarvis Hayes inside the final minute.

The Qataris drew support from the hometown crowd as they fended off the Taiwanese’s furious rally.

The Filipinos let out a big roar as Tseng Wen-ting misfired a potential game-tying three-pointer in the dying seconds.

A win by Chinese Taipei would have sealed the Philippines-China quarters faceoff.