By REYNALD MAGALLON
Victory remained elusive for the Gilas Pilipinas Boys team even in the classification round after falling into the hands of world No. 16 Argentina, 83-67, in the FIBA U17 World Cup at the Ahmet Comert Sports Hall in Istanbul, Turkey on Friday, July 5.
The Gilas Boys did show some semblance of improvement as they went on a 15-0 run in the final frame but the huge 28-point lead proved to be too much to overcome for the still winless Filipinos.
Losing all of its previous four games by an average of 64.75 points, the Gilas Boys looked to be on their way to a similar blowout after a tough first half where they could only muster 31 points against Argentina’s 53.
Gilas displayed some fight in the second half, particularly in the final frame when it cut a once 81-52 deficit to just 14 at 81-67 with 2:30 left. That, however, proved to be Gilas’ final assault as it couldn’t anymore buy a basket the rest of the way to put up enough threat.
For the first time in the tournament, four Gilas players scored in double figures with Kurt Nathan Velasquez pacing the team with 17 points while Bonn Ervin Daja came one rebound shy of a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Edryn Morales and Joaquin Ludovice were the other scorers for Gilas with 13 and 12, respectively.
Martin Torriani led the way for Argentina with 15 points and seven assists while Tyker Kropp had 13 points and nine rebounds.
Gilas has now dropped all of its five games in the competition and will face fellow Asian team China in the classification for 13-16 spots.
