CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/POOL
KUALA LUMPUR—Malaysia managed to ruffle Gilas Pilipinas’ feathers, but it paid a big price for doing so.
Before a loud crowd cheering for the host squad, the Philippines blew Malaysia apart, 98-66, to score its third straight win Wednesday night and inch closer to the Southeast Asian Games men’s basketball gold medal.
The win, which came after victories over Thailand and Myanmar, assured the Philippines of a place in the semifinals.
Filipino fans packed the MABA stadium cheering for the Gilas Cadets, which is practically guaranteed the gold medal here.
Things got a little hot in the third quarter when Kuek Tian Yuan fouled Kevin Ferrer and locked up the arm of the former UST star.
This drew the ire of the Gilas players with Baser Amer, Bryan Cruz and Troy Rosario engaging Malaysian players in a pushing contest.
As a result, Cruz and Amer were ejected with 5:41 left in the third quarter with Gilas protecting a 57-41 lead.
Surprisingly, no Malaysian player was expelled after the incident.
This fueled the Filipinos, who widened the gap to 73-46 going into the final period.
Naturalized player Christian Standhardinger scored 18 points and got 18 rebounds for Gilas.
Kobe Paras also had a solid outing for the second straight game to finish with 16 points off the bench.
The Philippines needed some time to heat up, trailing Malaysia, 15-20, in the first quarter as it put up poor defense and could not hit its shots.