Encho Serrano tries to score past the stingy Belgian defense. Photo by Fiba.com
The Philippine youth team failed to advance to the Final Four as Belgium hacked out an 18-14 triumph in their quarterfinal match in the 2017 Fiba 3×3 Under-18 Championship Sunday in Chengdu, China.
Even as the only Asian squad in the Last Eight, the Batang Gilas squad of Encho Serrano, Juan Gomez de Liano, Rhayyan Amsali and AJ Edu had a shot at scoring an upset after rallying to tie the game at 12.
But Belgium pulled away behind Vincent Peeters in the final two minutes to seal the win and arrange a semifinal duel against Slovenia.
The Filipinos advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time after securing the No. 2 spot with a 3-1 record in Pool A last Saturday.
Belgium topped Pool D with a 4-0 card.
In the first round, the Philippines split its first two games against Israel (19-17) and Pool A topnotcher the Netherlands (10-13), before scoring big wins over Poland (20-14) and Turkmenistan (21-14). —JASMINE W. PAYO