MANILA – Failing to hang on to its lead late in the game, the Philippines lost to China 80-82 in the 2018 Asian Games men’s basketball Tuesday night at the Gelora Bung Karno Basketball Hall in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Filipinos were up 80-77 after a layup by Stanley Pringle but China forced the former to two consecutive turnovers to tie the count 80-all on a free throw by Zhou Qi and a layup by Zhou Rui.
After another Philippine miscue, China managed to take the lead on two free throws by Rui from a foul by Jordan Clarkson. Paul Lee of the Philippines attempted a triple in the final seconds in a bid to win but misfired.
Qi led China with 25 points, including four triples, to go along with 12 rebounds and seven blocks. Wang Zhelin and Abudushalamu Abuderexiti had 13 and 12 points, respectively.
Clarkson made his Philippine team debut with 28 points and eight rebounds while Christian Standhardinger and Pringle contributed 18 and 14 points.
After a 5-0 start, the Philippines struggled heavily in the opening half and went down by as much as 12 points on triples by Qi and inside hits from Wang. The Philippines leaned on Clarkson to come to within 31-36 at the half.
China had a strong start in the third period behind Wang for a 10 point advantage but the Philippines, on consecutive treys from Clarkson, tied the scores 55-all before the Chinese got four free throws late in the period for a slim 59-57 edge.
In the fourth China pulled away anew 72-62 on inside shots by Abuderexiti but the Philippines clawed its way back behind Standhardinger and Pringle and a Lee triple tied the count 74-all.
Free throws from Standhardinger and a layup from Pringle let the Philippines snatch the lead 78-75. They were last up 80-77 before surrendering a 5-0 scoring run to China in the end.
The loss caused the Philippines (1-1) to drop to second place in Group D. The Filipinos are likely to advance to the quarterfinals unless Kazakhstan beats China by more than 35 points on Aug. 23. The Philippines won over Kazakhstan 96-59 last week./PN
