CHANGSHA – Gilas Pilipinas closed out its preliminary-round stint on an emphatic fashion, beating India to a pulp, 99-65, to gain top seeding in the knockout stage of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship at the Changsha Social Work College Gymnasium here on Tuesday.
With a much deeper rotation, the Filipinos wore down the Indians with a tremendous pressing defense in the second half and romped away with a fifth straight win following their Day One upset by Palestine.
Sweeping second-round rivals Japan, Iran and India, Team Phl advanced to the quarterfinals as the top seed from Group E, taking on either Jordan or Lebanon.
That was also the case for Gilas in the 2013 Asian joust at home in Manila where Team Phl went all the way to the gold-medal game versus eventual champion Iran.
Cheering for Gilas in its decisive victory against India was a Philippine gallery including the PBA delegation that flew in here a few hours before the game. PBA president Chito Salud, commissioner Chito Narvasa and board chairman Robert Non led the group that included Ginebra's Alfrancis Chua, Alaska's Dickie Bachmann and Sean Uytengsu, and Blackwater's Wilbert Loa.
Iran and Japan finished second and third behind Gilas in Group E as the former walloped Palestine, 94-48, and the latter whipped Hong Kong, 89-62.
The Indians beat the Palestinians for the last playoff berth in their bracket on a winner-over-the-other rule. The two teams wound up with identical 2-3 win-loss marks.
Behind the wondrous shooting of Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Amritpat Singh, the Indians fought a good fight in the first half but sagged and collapsed in the face of the Gilas press in the final half.
Terrence Romeo put in a team-high 20 points while Andray Blatche, Jayson Castro, Calvin Abueva, Ranidel de Ocampo and Marc Pingris all contributed double-digit outputs for the Gilas squad that refused to relax from its conquest of titleholder Iran the previous day.
“Kudos to our boys for really putting India under pressure,” said Gilas coach Tab Baldwin.
Their pressing defense netted 15 steals, 26-6 advantage on points from turnovers and the coveted playoff top spot from their elims bracket.
“This is where wanted to be. Now, games will be tough, all opponents will be tough. We’ll have to prepare and get ready to bring everything together and work as a team,” said Baldwin.
He stressed they have to get better as they progress in this tourney.
“We’re not as ready as we’d like to be, but the guys are responding, the ball movement is better, the condition is better,” said the Gilas bench chieftain.
Against India, the Nationals got all the things they could get, pushing themselves all the way to the closing seconds of the match.
As a result, the Filipinos held the Indians scoreless in one long stretch in the fourth quarter and broke the game wide open at 95-60.
Through the last seven minutes of the game, Gilas limited India to only five points.
Towards the end, Matt Ganuelas soared high and jammed in an alley-oop pass by Romeo in a highlight play that sent the crowd up on their feet.
On top of his 20 points, Romeo also collected four assists, three steals and three rebounds against one error in one of his best performance in a Gilas jersey.
The scores:
GILAS PILIPINAS 99 – Romeo 20, Blatche 15, De Ocampo 13, Abueva 12, Pingris 12, Castro 12, Hontiveros 6, Ganuelas 5, Intal 2, Norwood 2, Thoss 0, Taulava 0.
INDIA 65 – Bhriguvanshi 21, Am Singh 18, Amj Singh 11, Yad Singh 7, Pari 5, Shinde 3, Kaushik 0, Prakash 0, Arumugam 0, Gill 0.
Quarters: 16-17, 42-36, 65-50, 99-65