Despite finishing out of the podium, Batang Gilas flies home with history

Photo from Fiba.com

Just like in the semifinals, the Philippines hope for a podium finish was over quickly, dissipating in a rush of baskets from Chinese stars Wang Quanze and Xu Jie that fueled a strong first quarter en route to a 76-57 China victory that relegated Batang Gilas to fourth place in the Fiba Asia U18 championship Saturday in Thailand.

The Philippines scored the first  four points of the game before Wang found his range, pulled off a heist and then fed Xu for a layup that set the tone for the rout. By the time the first quarter horn blew, both Chinese youngsters had combined for 19 of China’s 27 points, five more than the output of the entire Batang Gilas squad in the period.

It was all over right there for the Philippines. At least, as far as tabbing a medal in the U18 tournament was concerned.

‘Look at the positive’

Batang Gilas, however, was still going home with something important: A ticket to the U19 Worlds, a first for the Philippines since 1979.

“There may be no denying it—we lost. But we try to look at the positive side of things. We made history and we have to be happy about that,” team skipper Dave Ildefonso told the Inquirer. “We still feel that we did our best to make our country proud.”

Indeed, there was no sugarcoating the loss. Before a drubbing at the hands of Australia in the semifinals, the Philippines was unbeaten in the tournament, behind sterling performances from the twin tower combination of Kai Sotto and AJ Edu.

Among those wins was a 73-63 domination of China in the group stage, where Ildefonso sparked a run with a pair of triples that greased Batang Gilas’ path to victory.

And then, behind Sotto and Edu in the quarterfinals, the team ripped Bahrain to make it to the World Cup.

But even after achieving history, the team was looking for more.

“We did achieve our goal in the tournament,” Ildefonso added. “But still, after winning against Bahrain and making it to the World Cup, we wanted to overachieve and get a podium finish.

“Sadly, we weren’t able to get to where we wanted to be.”

China made sure of that.

Wang was all business all game, finishing with 27 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and two steals. Playmaker Xu, who struggled with his shot in the loss to the Philippines in the group stage, rebounded with 18 points and seven assists.

Batang Gilas, on the other hand, was orphaned anew by its shooting, a day after making just 24 percent from the field against Australia. The Filipinos managed 34 percent this time, with Ildefonso, who had 18 points in the win against China, limited to just nine on a 4-of-13 clip. Edu added 14 points but made just five out of 15 attempts from the field.

Sotto was the best performer for the Philippines, with 16 points and missing just three of eight attempts and adding eight rebounds.

Still, the Filipinos shone a ray of positivity on basketball’s future in the country, with their performance drawing a snowballing clamor to keep the team together until the senior level.