Gilas Youth stumbles vs Japan

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 in Ahmedabad, India on Saturday.

The defeat sent the Philippines to the 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.