Gilas Pilipinas Men lean on strong 2nd half to beat Vietnam, enter SEA Games semis
The Gilas Pilipinas Men’s national team barged into the semi-finals of the 30th Southeast Asian Games Philippines 2019 basketball after using a decisive second half to pull away from Vietnam, 110-69 on Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila.
June Mar Fajardo’s size and strength proved to be the difference in the game, as he dominated the paint around en route to 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 12 rebounds in just over 15 minutes.
LA Tenorio added 14 points on 3-of-4 outside shooting, 11 coming in the first half. Vic Manuel also finished with 14 points while Troy Rosario added 12 markers. Six Gilas members tallied double-digits in scoring.
The nationals scored 60 points in the paint, utilizing the huge disparity in height.
Gilas outscored Vietnam, 28-17 in a strong third quarter onslaught to pull away from a relatively tighter contest early on.
Vietnam withstood Gilas’ punches in the first quarter, keeping the game deadlocked at 16-all.
But that was before the five-time PBA MVP took charge underneath, scoring 11 first quarter points as he took advantage of Vietnam’s lack of a natural center.
The nationals closed out the opening frame on an 11-3 run, and established control.
More Gilas players took turns taking over respective parts of the game then. Manuel and Tenorio took charge in the second period as the hosts increased the lead.
The home team then opened the third canto with 10 unanswered points behind baskets from Rosario to make it 62-40.
Later in the final period, the Philippines kept pouncing, going on a huge run to push the lead to as high as 43.
The Philippines lorded in the rebounding battle, 69-30 and assists department, 30-10. They also shot 49 percent overall from the field.
The scores:
Philippines (110) – Fajardo 23, Tenorio 14, Rosario 12, Manuel 12, Pringle 11, Slaughter 10, Wright 7, Lassiter 6, Aguilar 6, Ravena 5, Ross 1, Standhardinger 1.
Vietnam (69) – Dierker 28, Young 13, Tran 7, Le 6, Dinh T. 5, Nguyen V. 4, Dinh S. 3, Vo 2, Du 1, Nguyen S. 0, Nguyen H. 0.
Quarterscores: 27-19, 52-40, 80-57, 110-69.
By Levi Verora Jr.
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