Gilas unseats Taiwanese in 3x3

Gilas Pilipinas dethroned Chinese Taipei and clinched a breakthrough semifinal after a hard-fought, 21-19, quarterfinal victory in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games men’s 3x3 basketball on Thursday at the Kinjo Futo Station Square Venue.

Doy Dungo, Koji Buenaflor and Luis Pablo nailed the crucial baskets in the closing stretch to propel the Filipinos closer to a podium finish.

Gilas will take on South Korea in the semis set at 12:50 p.m. (Manila time) Friday.

Trailing 17-18 with 1:17 left, Dungo drained a two-pointer to put Gilas on top.

Wei-chieh Yeh converted a free throw on a technical foul called on Gilas to knot the game at 19 — the game’s eighth and last deadlock.

Buenaflor then scored on Gilas’ third attempt in its possession, which pushed the Philippines to the hilt with 38.1 seconds remaining.

Chun-sheng Chang went for the win with a long bomb but missed his mark as Buenaflor collared the rebound, paving the way to Pablo’s game-clinching drive with 15 seconds to spare.

Gilas survived a near meltdown after losing its grip of a 12-6 lead with 5:50 left after a Nic Cabanero outside shot.

Cabanero led Gilas with eight points, Pablo had six points and six rebounds while Dungo and Buenaflor added five and three points, respectively.

The Taiwanese got 10 points from Yeh and five from Chang.

South Korea beat China, 22-13, for a third straight semis entry.

Meanwhile, Gilas Pilipinas Women also punched a ticket to the semis after a convincing, 22-12, victory over Singapore in the distaff side.

KA Kennan and Amyah Espanol scored seven points each while Kacey dela Rosa added six for Gilas Women, who will take on Thailand in the Final Four today at 12:25 p.m.

Thailand defeated Iran, 12-11, to advance.