MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas managed to keep in step early but lost steam and suffered a 126-67 defeat in the hands of the more aggressive Serbia in the 2019 FIBA World Cup last night at the Foshan International Sports and Cultural Center in Foshan, China.
The second consecutive defeat crushed the national men’s basketball team’s hope of moving into the second round regardless of the outcome of its game against Angola on Wednesday.
Despite surrendering five early points to Serbia, Gilas was still in the thick of things early and even took a 9-7 lead on a stepback jumper by Paul Lee. The Serbians, however, leaned on Nikola Jokic to widen the lead to 15 points.
Gilas tried to keep in step with the Serbians in the second period behind Jaymar Perez and Robert Bolick but the Serbians got its three-point shooting to go for a 20-point edge at the half.
The Serbians pounded the Philippines in the second half with its tall line up and with its accurate outside shooting. The lead reached its largest at 52 points midway in the fourth quarter.
Nemanja Bjelica top-scored with 20 points on perfect 7-of-7 shooting, while Bogdan Bogdanovic converted four three-point baskets and finished with 17 markers for the 2-0 Serbian.
Jokic also had a perfect outing for the Serbians with 11 points on 5-of-5 field goal shooting, while Boban Marjanovic saw action in the second half and tallied nine markers.
Perez tallied 17 points. Paul Lee added 15 markers while naturalized center Andray Blatche was a disappointment anew; he finished with just five points.
BOX SCORE:
SERBIA 126 – Bjelica 20, Bogdanovic 17, Raduljica 13, Guduric 12, Jokic 11, Micic 11, Milutinov 10, Marjanovic 9, Simonovic 7, Jovic 6, Bircevic 6, Lucic 4.
PHILIPPINES 67 – Perez 16, Lee 15, Fajardo 8, Bolick 7, Aguilar 7, Blatche 5, Ravena 5, Pogoy 2, Rosario 2, Norwood 0, Almazan 0.
Quarterscores: 28-13, 62-35, 99-48, 126-67. /PN
