Gilas enters semis but Chot rues near meltdown

MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas barely survived for the second straight game fending off a big scare by resurgent India, 70-66, on Thursday to barge into the semis of the 5th FIBA Asia Cup in Wuhan, China.

Gilas almost squandered a 16-point lead heading into the final five minutes as India, which beat China earlier in the tournament, whipped up a 12-0 windup only to run out of time.

Phl coach Chot Reyes was disappointed with the way they finished the game, two days after escaping past Jordan, 71-70, in the preliminaries.

"It's a huge step back for us," Reyes told FIBA Asia's website. "I'm so upset at my team that I don't have words to express."

Gilas, which is using this tournament to prepare for the FIBA World Cup in Spain, can't afford to play the way they did in the past two games in their FIBA Asia Men's Championship rematch with mighty Iran on Friday.

After Paul Lee made a three-pointer to push Gilas' lead to 16, 70-54, India held them scoreless the rest of the way.

Lee, who is playing in his first tournament with Gilas once again led the team with 15 points to go with five rebounds, three assists and three steals to cushion the impact of India's last-ditch rally.

Lee solidly quarterbacked the Phl squad in the second quarter even as 6-10 back-up slotman June Mar Fajardo held his fort in the paint while Kevin Alas, Ranidel de Ocampo and Jay Washington fueled Gilas' offense to turn a 14-17 deficit into a 36-20 lead. 

The Filipinos controlled the game and appeared cruising to a big rout until almost throwing the game away in the final five minutes.

Marcus Douthit played his best game of the tournament finishing with 14 points and 12 boards while De Ocampo wound up with 13 markers on 5-of-7 shooting.

Amritpal Singh, one of four India's seven-footers, paced the losing team with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

Gilas barely has 24 hours to forget about the near meltdown and prepare for the much awaited rematch with Iran which will be televised live on Aksyon 41 at 5pm with primetime telecast on TV5 at 7pm on Friday. The winner will advance to the finals opposite the winner of the other semifinal pairing between host Chine and Chinese Taipei.