By CARLO ANOLIN
Gilas Pilipinas U18 averted a late meltdown against a resilient Chinese Taipei team by eking out a 72-67 victory in the classification match of the FIBA U18 Asian Championships Friday at the Azadi Basketball Hall in Tehran, Iran.
Mason Amos continued to provide the spark for the Filipino dribblers, finishing with 21 points on a 9-of-15 shooting along with six rebounds, and three assists while Jared Bahay added 14 points and grabbed five rebounds as the Nationals bounced back from crushing defeat to Lebanon in the quarters.
Gilas Youth still pulled through despite turning the ball 27 times – some of them enabled Chinese Taipei to get back on track in the last three minutes.
Gilas led by as many as 13 points after Earl Jared Abadam fired a three-pointer at the 3:16 mark, 70-57, but the Chinese Taipei side righted the ship and pulled within striking distance through an 11-2 run.
Time, however, was not on Chinese Taipei’s side,
Wei Chieh Yeh paced Chinese Taipei with 17 points while Te Chi Hsu and Chun Yen contributed 16 and 12 points, respectively.
The Philippines will next face Iran on Sunday, Aug. 28, in their battle for fifth place.
Iran earlier routed Qatar, 82-45, in another classification match.
