Paul Lee lifts Gilas Pilipinas to 3rd

Paul Lee drained three free throws with no time left Saturday night and lifted Gilas Pilipinas to an 80-79 squeaker over China for the bronze medal in the Fiba Asia Cup at Wuhan Gym in Wuhan, China.

It was the best finish for the Philippines in the biennial event and the Filipinos had to come back from six points down in the last two minutes and from 77-79 with just 6.2 ticks left.

The play was similar to the one that Lee tried to come up with in Game 1 of the San Mig Coffee-Rain or Shine series in the PBA Governors’ Cup less than two weeks ago, the only difference was that he got the call this time while faking a three-point shot off a Chinese double team.

China failed to win it with 6.2 seconds left when guard Zirui Wang missed two free throws off a foul by Ranidel de Ocampo.

Marcus Douthit then plucked the rebound and the transition play had LA Tenorio passing it to Lee, who faked off two defenders and got the foul from Kelan Makan to the consternation of the home crowd.

De Ocampo paced Gilas with 18 points while Douthit grabbed 17 boards and 10 points.

The scores:

GILAS PILIPINAS 80—De Ocampo 18, Aguilar 14, Tenorio 12, Douthit 10, Belga 10, Lee 9, Lanete 3, Washington 2, Dillinger 2, David 0.

CHINA 79—Makan 23, Gao 11, Tao 11, Zhou 10, Wang 9, Gu 7, Zhang 6, He 2, Dong 0, Zhao 0.

Quarters: 15-24, 38-44, 60-62, 80-79.