Gilas Youth falls to Bahrain, bombs out of Asian tourney

Gilas Pilipinas Youth suffered a 79-66 loss to Bahrain to suffer its worst finish ever in the FIBA U16 Asia Cup on Thursday at the MBank Arena in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

A strong third-quarter surge from the Bahrainis crippled the Filipinos doomed their chances of advancing to the quarterfinals of this prestigious event that dangles four tickets to the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup in Turkey next year.

With that, the wards of head coach LA Tenorio will be flying back to Manila with the infamous tag of being the only national squad that missed the Last Eight in this continental meet’s 16-year history after losing to Chinese Taipei, 82-101, and New Zealand, 54-85, while posting a single win over Indonesia, 107-102, in the group stage.

Prior to this botched performance, the ugliest finish of Gilas Pilipinas in this tournament was when the group of Jared Bahay, Kris Porter and Jacob Bayla finished seventh in Doha in 2022. The squad bannered by Gian Mamuyac, Harvey Pagsanjan and SJ Belangel also finished fifth in Jakarta in 2015.

But aside from that, the Filipinos have been consistently qualifying in the semifinals of this Asian tourney as they finished fourth in Malaysia in 2009, fourth in Vietnam in 2011, second in Iran in 2013, fourth in China in 2018, and fourth in Doha in 2023.

It was also the Filipinos’ first loss to the Bahrainis, whom they beat by an average winning margin of 28.5 points — a 98-58 decision on 29 October 2015 in Indonesia and a 62-45 outcome on 21 November 2009 in Malaysia.

Save for Jolo Pascual, who registered 10 points, four assists and three rebounds, nobody from the Philippine side scored in double figure with Justin Hallare posting nine points and Brian Orca delivering eight markers that underscore their sour shooting against the taller, more aggressive dribblers from the Gulf region.

The Bahrainis were also sharp from the field with 27-of-70 shooting for 38.6 percent while the Filipinos only made 27 out of their 80 attempts for 32.9 percent. Bahrain also did well in the rebounding department, 53-49, while the Filipinos moved the ball better with 18 assists.

But the pivotal moment happened in the third period.

After the Filipinos hung tough in the first two periods, Hassan Oshobuge Abdulkadir ignited the Bahrainis’ 18-3 bomb that gave them a 62-47 cushion to grab the driver’s seat and dictate the tempo the rest of the way.

Although the Southeast Asian champion tried to fight back in the final stretch, Hassan Abdulkadir and Mohamed Adel Abdulla were steady from the charity stripe to seal the victory that will pit them against the topnotcher in Group C — China — in the quarterfinals.