Batang Gilas barges into Fiba Asia U-16 quarters

Photo from Fiba.com

Batang Gilas Pilipinas flashed its deadly form and thumped Hong Kong, 103-61, to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2018 FIBA Asia U-16 Championship Thursday at Foshan Lingnan Mingzhu Gymnasium in China.

Shaking off their paltry showing in the group stages, the national youth team settled down and clobbered their foes to arrange a duel against Japan in the final eight at 6 p.m. on Friday.

King Balaga poured 12 points and five rebounds, while RC Calimag got 12 markers, four boards, and three assists to lead the balanced attack for Batang Gilas.

Kai Sotto collected a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds in only 10 minutes of action, while Terrence Fortea, Forthsky Padrigao, and Geo Chiu all wound up with 11 markers apiece.

The Philippines came out of the gates hot with an 18-4 run as it finally regained its shooting touch, finishing at 41-percent shooting for its best clip in the tourney, en route to the 42-point spread.

The boys of coach Mike Oliver inched closer to their dream of making it to the 2018 FIBA U-17 Basketball World Cup, with the top four teams in the Asian tournament advancing to the tilt.

Lung Tsz Kit paced Hong Kong with 18 points and four rebounds in the defeat.

The Scores:

PHILIPPINES 103 — Balaga 12, Calimag 12, Chiu 11, Fortea 11, Padrigao 11, Sotto 11, Guadaña 10, Bautista 6, Go 6, Andrada 5, Lazaro 5, Cortez 3.

HONG KONG 61 — Lung 18, Cheung 12, Lam 7, Leung 6, Siu WY 6, Kwok 4, Lo 4, Chan 2, Siu KW 2, Chan 0, Chui 0, Lee 0.

Quarters: 31-18, 59-36, 86-52, 103-61.