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[av_heading heading=’Lithuania thrashes Gilas in Jones Cup ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas failed to sustain its strong start. It suffered a 91-80 defeat in the hands of Lithuania in the 2017 William Jones Cup yesterday at the Taipei Peace International Basketball Hall in Taiwan.
With the defeat, the national men’s basketball team has dropped to 4-3 win-loss slate and can only salvage a bronze medal finish if it wins over India and Iran in its last two games.
Gilas had a strong start and was able to build a lead as high as 18-10 on three pointers by Roger Pogoy but Lithuania also rode on their outside shooting to come to within 22-20.
Gilas were still holding to a slim 26-22 lead early in the second quarter when Lithuania turned things around with their outside sniping to surge to a 50-41 lead at the half.
Lithuania’s lead continued to swell in the third frame as it reach to its highest at 20 points but Gilas was able respond with a run to trim the deficit to 74-64 on a triple by Matthew Wright.
Lithuania had another run to quickly increase the lead to 87-70 before Gilas made its last push behind Mike Myers, Pogoy and Kiefer Ravena to make the score respectable.
Elgirdas Zukauskas led the way with 22 points while Edvinas Seskus and Sarunas Vingelis contributed 19 and 13 points, respectively, for the Lithuania, which moved up to solo first place with 6-1 win-loss slate.
Ilonggo Ravena and Myers top-scored with 14 points apiece, while Pogoy and Wright had 13 points each for Gilas.
BOX SCORE:
LITHUANIA 91 — Zukauskas 22, E. Seslus 19, Vingelis 13, Linkevicius 11, Beniusis 11, D. Seskus 7, Jocys 6, Volkus 2, Apsitis 0.
PHILIPPINES 80 — Myers 14, Ravena 14, Pogoy 13, Wright 13, Cruz 10, Standhardinger 9, Jalalon 5, Jose 2, Parks 0, Ferrer 0, Belo 0.
Quarterscores:17-22, 50-41, 74-64, 91-80./PN
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