Junior Tall Blacks stand tall, crush Filipinos

Gilas Pilipinas Youth suffered yet another crushing defeat following a 54-85 setback to New Zealand in the preliminaries of the FIBA U16 Asia Cup on Tuesday at the Buyant Ukhaa Sport Complex in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar.

The Filipinos started cold, allowing the taller, more aggressive Junior Tall Blacks to launch an early assault with a 17-7 lead in the first quarter to dictate the tempo the rest of the way.

The lead even ballooned to 31 points, 85-54, off a pair of successful free throws from Daley Pohio in the final 30 seconds of the match.

Liam Anthony Keogh, a 6-foot-4 forward from Victoria State, led the attack, dropping 17 points and seven rebounds while Lawson Pryor chipped in 15 markers and six rebounds for the Kiwis, who essayed a fitting follow-up to their masterful 19-point demolition of Chinese Taipei, 101-82, on Monday night to close their pool play campaign on top of Group B with a 3-0 mark.

On the contrary, Jhustine Hallare and Mark Jhello Lumagub served as bright spots for Filipinos, who are fashioning a 1-2 card after opening their campaign with an 82-106 loss to the Taiwanese on Sunday before posting a 65-60 triumph over Southeast Asian neighbors Indonesians on Monday.

Hallare, who is playing for University of the Philippines Integrated School, fired 13 markers while Lumagub, who campaigns for Letran College, chipped in 11 markers and seven rebounds for Gilas Youth coach LA Tenorio.

The superiority of the Junior Tall Blacks was on full display on both ends.

In fact, the Kiwis crushed dominated the rebounding department, 61-34, and had better ball movement with 24 assists compared to the Filipinos’ 15.

They also asserted their might in the shaded lanes after converting 19-of-38 for an impressive 50 percent of their shots in the two-point area while the Filipinos notched only 32.5 percent with 32 made out of 40 attempts.