The men’s Gilas team will take on Thailand Tuesday at 8:15 p.m. at the Mall of Asia Arena. #SEAG2019 #GilasPilipinas #GilasbeatsIndonesia

Gilas Pilipinas advances to the gold medal round after it took down a feisty Indonesian team, 97-70, in the Basketball event of the 30th Southeast Asian Games at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Christian Standhardinger led the way for Gilas with 14 points, four rebounds and two assists. Matthew Wright finished with 13 points, four rebounds and eight assists while Vic Manuel contributed 12 points off the bench.

“The thing about these kind of tournaments is that the more you play, the more chance teams have to scout you and you have a coach like Rajko Toromon for sure he’s gonna have his team thoroughly prepared and they really came prepared and it shocked us.” said Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone.

“As you progress teams are gonna get better and we didn’t realize that in the first quarter.” he added.

The Men’s Gilas squad will now move on to the gold medal round and will take on Thailand tomorrow at 8:15 pm at the Mall of Asia Arena. A win for Gilas Pilipinas would give Philippines its 18th SEA games gold medal in the basketball event.

Indonesia put up a strong performance in the first half keeping themselves within reach 28-39 entering the second half.

But after the tightly contested first half, Gilas Pilipinas started to turn up the heat in the second half and began to pull away as in the third quarter with 6:41 left in the clock and Gilas leading, 47-39, Chris Ross sparked a 16-0 run to push their lead to 63-39 with only 4:30 left in the game.

And with 1:37 left in the game, Vic Manuel put the game away with a jumper to give them a 97-67 lead.

Gilas Pilipinas continued to decimate Indonesia in the fourth quarter and with 8:26 left on the game, June Mar Fajardo draine a turnaround jumper to give them their biggest lead in the game at 36, 83-47.

Juan Kokodiputra led the way for Indonesia with 20 points and two assists. Abraham Grahita finished the game with 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists.