ALIVE AND KICKING: Bolick stars in Gilas’ 31-point win over Kazakhstan

Games tomorrow:

(Aichi International Arena)

9 a.m. — Bahrain vs Kazakhstan

12 p.m. — China vs Philippines

Robert Bolick silenced his doubters with an offensive explosion to help defending champion Gilas Pilipinas get a fighting chance for a spot in the next round of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games men’s basketball competition.

Held scoreless the day before, Bolick fired 20 points in the Philippines’ much-needed 109-78 win over Kazakhstan on Saturday at the Aichi International Arena.

The NLEX star, who missed all five of his field goal attempts in Gilas’ four-point loss to Bahrain on Friday, shot 7-of-11 from the field. Bolick also drained four triples in an efficient 16 minutes on the floor.

Jerrick Ahanmisi finished what Bolick started by hitting 7-of-11 three-pointers for a game-high 22 points, Calvin Oftana had 12 points, Sedrick Barefield also rebounded from a scoreless opener with 11 points while Zav Lucero scored 10 points and nine rebounds.

Gilas improved to an even 1-1 win-loss record tied with Bahrain.

The Filipinos also built confidence heading into the last playdate in Group C against China on Monday in a rematch of the pandemic-delayed Hangzhou edition semifinal three years ago.

Gilas used a strong second quarter to turn a slim three-point lead at the end of the opening period into as many as 21 in the first half. Bolick hit a trey to give Gilas a 38-17 separation with 4:57 left in the second quarter.

Kazakhstan tried to turn things around early in the third canto and trimmed their deficit to just eight, only for Gilas to pull away once again and turn it into a blowout.

The Kazakhs dropped to 0-2 despite the 15-point, 10-rebound effort of Anton Bykov and 12-point productions of Abat Marat and Askar Maydekin.

Meanwhile, China made easy work of Bahrain, 105-59, for a perfect 2-0 record and a spot in the knockout quarterfinal.

Sanning Liao led the previous Asiad’s bronze medalist China with 23 points and six assists, Yuezhou Li scored 18 while Zhenglin Pang, Junjie Wang and Jinqui Hu added 11 points each.

On the other hand, the Bahrainis fight for the last outright quarters berth against the also-ran Kazakhs on Monday.