San Beda Red Cubs star Josh Caracut celebrates during the Philippines’ 72-69 win over Malaysia in the Fiba Asia U-18 Championship in Doha, Qatar. PHOTO from fibaasia.net
MANILA, Philippines – Joshua Caracut bailed out the Philippine youth U-18 team over Malaysia with a clutch triple in the waning seconds to win, 72-69, and advance to the quarterfinal round of the Fiba Asia U-18 Championship Monday morning (Manila time) in Doha, Qatar.
Caracut drilled in the game-winning 3-pointer that broke a 69-deadlock with under 25 seconds left and sent the Philippines into a date with Chinese Taipei in the knockout stages.
Radge Tongco topscored for Batang Gilas anew with 22 points while Mark Dyke posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Kobe Paras had 12 points, four rebounds and three steals.
The Malaysians still had a golden opportunity to steal the game when PH’s Manuel Mosqueda was slapped with an unsportsmanlike foul but they blew the chance after missing both free throws and misfiring on a potential game-tying trey as time ran out.
The thrilling win also avoided a quarter’s matchup with powerhouse Iran.
The Philippines rebounded from a blowout loss to China and improved its tournament record to 3-2.
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