MANILA, Philippines — The Gilas Pilipinas U18 boys team had the perfect beginning to their FIBA U18 Asian Championship in Iran after a 112-48 rout over Syria at the Azadi Basketball Hall on Sunday.
A wire-to-wire victory that saw the Philippines lead by as many as 71 points energized the Filipino cagers, who will play two more games in just as many days in the hopes of ruling the competition.
Gilas was an efficient 51.72% shooting from the field while limiting Syria to just 23.38%.
A pesky Gilas defense also forced a whopping 39 turnovers from the Syrian side — 29 of which came from steals.
Mason Amos paced the Gilas boys with 26 points on 11-of-15 scoring. Earl jared Abadam added 19 markers, six rebounds, four assists and seven steals.
Seven Gagate flirted with the double-double with 19 points and nine boards. Gagate also had two steals and two blocks.
All Gilas players scored at least one point in the convincing victory.
George Kastntin was the top scorer for Syria with 12 points.
Syria scored half of their points in the fourth salvo with 24 points. That was the total of their production on offense in the first three quarters combined.
Gilas plays Qatar next on Monday.