MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas Youth fell short of its comeback bid in the endgame to suffer a 77-72 defeat to Argentina in the 2019 FIBA Under-19 World Cup on Sunday night (Monday morning in Manila) at the Heraklion University Hall in Greece.
With the defeat, the national men’s youth basketball team dropped to last place in Group C with 0-2 slate. Argentina improves to 2-0, while Russia and Greece had 1-1 slate.
Trailing by as much as 15 points in the opening half, the Gilas Pilipinas Youth went on a rampage in the third period to come to as close as five on triples by James Spencer and Dalph Panopio.
The Argentinians, however, had a quick response in the fourth as the lead reached to 12 points before the Philippines made its last move to come to within four behind triples by Dave Ildefonso and Ilonggo Gerry Abadiano.
But, the Gilas Pilipinas Youth fumbled in the final seconds of the match as they wasted so much seconds before fouling Argentina’s Lucas Reyes to increase their advantage to six with just a few seconds in the game.
Ildefonso led the Philippines with 22 points and 10 rebounds while Kai Sotto tallied 17 points, eight rebounds, and six blocks. Abadiano and Spencer finished with nine markers each.
Marco Giordano top-scored with 18 points, including three triples, Francisco Farabello added 15 markers, while Reyes also ended up with 15, 11 in the fourth quarter, for Argentina.
The Sandy Arespacochaga-mentored Gilas Pilipinas Youth will have a day break before ending up their World Cup campaign against Russia on Tuesday, July 3 at 1:00 a.m./PN
