Gilas Youth secures 8th place

Gilas Pilipinas Youth ended its FIBA U18 Asia Cup campaign in eighth place after absorbing an 78-89 loss to Chinese Taipei in the classification round at the Veer Savarkar Indoor Stadium in Ahmedabad, India on Sunday.

The defeat gave the Taiwanese sweet revenge after suffering a heartbreaking 88-89 loss to the Philippines in the opening match of the tournament.

Gilas Youth looked headed for another victory after building a 12-point lead, 38-26, in the second quarter.

But Chinese Taipei suddenly flipped the script.

A triple by Yu-Sheng Xing with 5:19 remaining in the period sparked a furious 16-0 run that turned the game around and gave the Taiwanese a 42-38 lead.

Chinese Taipei eventually entered halftime ahead by eight and never looked back as the Filipinos failed to recover.

The Taiwanese stretched their lead to as many as 14 points, 83-69, approaching the final six minutes following a putback by Carter Coleman and finished strong to complete the payback victory.

Chinese Taipei also made the Philippines pay for its mistakes, converting 18 turnovers into 18 points.

Chog Moral tried to keep Gilas Youth afloat with 22 points, nine rebounds and three steals, but his all-around effort was not enough to prevent the collapse.

Coleman powered Chinese Taipei with 23 points and 15 rebounds while Xing added 17 points.

Ethan Aguas finished with 15 points for the Philippines, which bowed out of the tournament without reaching its goal of securing one of Asia’s four berths in the 2027 FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in Pardubice, Czech Republic.