Gilas gets blown out by Lebanon, drops to battle for 7th

Photo from Fiba.com

Gilas Pilipinas’ woes continued as it suffered a second straight beating this time, at the hands of Lebanon, 106-87, in the classification phase of the 2017 Fiba Asia Cup Sunday night at Nouhad Nawfal Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon.

Fadi El Khatib led the Lebanese’ wire-to-wire win with a tournament-high 36 points.

Lebanon’s naturalized big man Norvel Pelle also gave the Filipinos’ fits, dominating the paint on both ends with 23 points, 13 rebounds and nine blocks.

Gilas, which sorely missed the services of Fil-German Christian Standhardinger, faces Jordan on Monday in a duel for seventh place.

Terrence Romeo paced the Philippines in scoring with 19 points, most of which came in the fourth quarter where the game was already decided.

Frustrations mounted for Gilas late with head coach Chot Reyes getting tossed midway through the final frame.

After going undefeated in the group stages, Gilas’ campaign took a turn for the worse following a blowout loss to fierce rival South Korea in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.