Japan dumps Gilas Youth

Gilas Pilipinas Youth’s woes continued to pile up after absorbing a 75-80 loss to Japan in the classification round of the FIBA U18 Asia Cup at the Veer Savarkar Indoor Stadium on Saturday in Ahmedabad, India.

The defeat sent the Philippines to a battle for seventh place, where it will face either Iran or Chinese Taipei on Sunday at 1 p.m. (Manila time).

Gilas Youth found itself playing catch-up early after Japan broke a 4-4 deadlock with a pair of free throws from Kaito Nakamura with 7:58 remaining in the opening quarter.

The Japanese then unleashed a 14-4 run to build an 18-8 advantage and dictated the pace for the rest of the match.

A floater by Yousef Hasan Thompson with 2:31 left in the first period gave Japan its biggest lead of the game at 14 points, 25-11.

The Filipinos refused to go away and made one final push in the fourth quarter.

A triple by Jan Bennett Cagurungan with 3:12 remaining pulled Gilas Youth within four, 63-67, but Aru Takahashi immediately answered with a three-pointer of his own to restore Japan’s cushion, 70-63.

Japan dominated the interior, scoring 56 points in the paint while also winning the rebounding battle, 44-33.

Kenichiro Benedict led the Japanese with 20 points while Cayman Tsuneoka added 15 points and nine rebounds.

Chog Moral paced Gilas Youth with 21 points.

Patrick Laurence Pasinos added 10 points, six rebounds and three assists while George Aidan Green also finished with 10 points as the Philippines prepared for one final game in the tournament.