Lee-thal charities win bronze for Gilas

MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas executed a huge, thrilling play in the last five seconds capped by three charities by Paul Lee with no time left as the Nationals salvaged an 80-79 win over China for third place honors in the fifth FIBA Asia Cup at the Wuhan Sports Centre in Wuhan, China last night.

With their fate in the balance with five ticks left, Marcus Douthit grabbed a big defensive rebound then Lee worked for a brilliant play drawing a foul from two Chinese defenders that sent him to the line to win the game for the Filipinos.

The Chinese bench and the home crowd stood still then went home disappointed as Lee, one by one, coolly sank three charities to snatch the win from the home team.

The Chinese opened the opportunity for the Filipinos to steal the game after Zirui Wang missed two free throws with five seconds left.

Gilas Pilipinas repeated its conquest of the same team in the same event in Tokyo, Japan in 2012 and thus gained a very first podium finish in this tourney formerly known as the Stankovic Cup.

Fourth placers in the Asia Cup in 2010 and in 2012, the Filipinos fought back from an eight-point deficit in the last five minutes and simply refused to lose in the tupsy-turvy finish of this bronze-medal match.

LA Tenorio, playing off the bench in this game, scored 12 points, including a short jumper tying the count at 77 with barely a minute left.

In the ensuing play, Kelan Makan drew a foul from Japeth Aguilar and nailed his two gift shots as China went up for the last time at 79-77.

The Filipinos, however, would keep on fighting till they pulled through with the dramatic victory.

Starting in place of Tenorio, Lee went 2-of-5 from the field and 4-of-5 from the stripe and wound up with nine points, two assists and two steals against one turnover.

Ranidel de Ocampo topscored with 18 points spiked by a perfect 3-of-3 clip from beyond the arc.

Marcus Douthit outsmarted the young Chinese giants, coming through with 22 rebounds and 10 points while Tenorio, Beau Belga and Japeth Aguilar all put in double-digit outputs in solid relief jobs.

Belga rattled in 10 straight points to personally stop an early Chinese breakaway, forging a tie at 33-all.

The two teams then fought through a battle of runs with Chinese enjoying an 11-point spread in one instance.