THE campaign of the Batang Gilas Under-18 squad in the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) Asia U-18 Championships started on a wrong foot, absorbing a 74-88 loss to Chinese Taipei in their Group A match on Saturday morning in Tehran, Iran.
After battling the Taiwanese in the first period neck and neck, the young Filipino dribblers were dominated in the second canto, as they were outscored 30-11 to enter the break trailing by 20, 29-49.
Chinese Taipei led by as much as 25 points in the game before the Michael Oliver-mentor Batang Gilas team unleashed a 10-2 assault to slice the lead to 71-83 with three minutes left in the game.
But Kuo-Hao Kao hit a three-pointer and split his two free throws to douse the rally of the Filipinos, and give the No. 27 world-ranked Taiwan a 87-71 lead, 1:32 remaining in the game.
Jonas Tibayan was the lone player in the Philippine side to hit double figures with 15 points, while Rendell Lee and JV Gallego each had nine markers for the PHL 5, which was playing Qatar as of press time.
John Bryle Bahio had eight points and eight rebounds, while Fran Yu and team skipper Jolo Mendoza had seven apiece. Mendoza struggled in the game, hitting 3-of-12 from the field.
Kao and Sheng-Ju Ting each had 16 points for Chinese Taipei, while Kuei-Yu Chou added 12 markers.
Other opening day winners were Lebanon over Kazakhstan, 97-37; defending champion China walloped Iraq, 93-28; South Korea downed Japan, 92-72; India surprised Thailand, 100-93; and Iran demolished Indonesia, 106-40.
The top 3 teams in this tournament will advance to the Fiba U-19 World Championship in Cairo, Egypt, next year.