By JONAS TERRADO
Gilas Pilipinas overcame an early scare to beat Thailand, 21-16, Friday, May 13 for its second win in the men’s 3×3 competitions of the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Brandon Rosser, Reymar Caduyac, Jorey Napoles and Marvin Hayes came back from a 12-7 deficit to defeat the Thai squad of Freddie Lish, Antonio Price, Moses Morgan and Chanatip Jakrawan.
It was Gilas’ second win after rolling past Cambodia, 19-7, an hour earlier to begin its title-retention bid at the Thanh Tri District Sporting Hall.
Rosser, Caduyac, Napoles and Hayes will look to end the first day with a 3-0 record as they are battling Indonesia at presstime.
The Gilas women’s team, however, fell to 1-1 after suffering a 21-18 loss to host Vietnam – just scoring a ho-hum 21-5 over Cambodia.
Afril Bernardino, Janine Pontejos, Clare Castro and Angel Surada rallied from an early deficit to take a 16-12, but Gilas couldn’t cool off Vietnam’s hot shooting from two-point range and suffered a stinging defeat.
Gilas was looking to bounce back against Thailand in a game being played at presstime.
Rosser, Napoles, Hayes and Caduyac face Singapore, Malaysia and host Vietnam on Saturday while Bernardino, Pontejos, Castro and Surada meet Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The top four teams in both divisions advance to the semifinals, with the winners advancing to the gold medal match also on Saturday.
