THE PHILIPPINES ended its Youth Olympic Games campaign on a winning note as its 3-on-3 basketball team coasted to a lopsided 34-23 victory overPuerto Rico Sunday and salvaged ninth place at the Scape Youth Space Center in Singapore.
Sustaining his razor-sharp form, Bobby Ray Parks Jr. shot 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the Filipinos to their fourth straight victory in the consolation bracket after opening their campaign with three consecutive losses.
Parks Jr., son of the former seven-time PBA Best Import Bobby, Sr., fouled out but power forward Michael Pate picked up the slack, adding eight points, including two triples.
Parks also had 10 points, five steals in a 28-19 smashing of Iran Saturday.
The win by the cage team somehow eased the pain of the medal-less stint of the nine-man RP delegation.
“Sometimes making an impact is enough,” said RP delegation chief Mark Joseph, who also heads the aquatics association.
“We came here operating on logic that we could make an effect against the opponents put before us and simply put, we took our chance.”
Swimming standout Jessie King Lacuna managed a top eight finish in the 200-meter freestyle while Jasmine Alkhaldi came through with a 12th place finish in the girls’ 100 free.
Tennis player Jeson Patrombon did not get past the first round, both in the singles and doubles with an Indian partner and taekwondo jin Kirk Barbosa lost in his first outing. Patricia Llena wound up fifth in the 63 kg division of weightlifting.
Jeron Teng, son of former pro Alvin, and Cris Michael Tolomia, younger brother of another ex-PBA player Chester, chipped in seven and six points, respectively against Puerto Rico.
Parks staked RP to a 20-15 lead at the break and never looked back.
The Filipinos dropped three straight losses to US Virgin Islands, Spain and Croatia before overpowering South Africa.
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