NHA TRANG, Vietnam — What was expected to be its first acid test turned out to be another runaway win for Energen Pilipinas U-16 team as the Nationals clobbered a hapless Qatar squad, 107-28, and secured a quarterfinal berth in the FIBA Asia U-16 Championship Saturday at the Khanh Hoa Sports Center.

Drawing inspired games from Hubert Cani and Rev Diputado this time, the Nationals coasted to their third straight blowout win in the tournament.

Coach Olsen Racela inserted Cani into the starting lineup and his quickness and energy gave the Filipino cagers a big lift in the opening period before Diputado erupted in the second half to pummel their rivals.

Andrei Caracut, Fil-Aussie Jordan Heading and hustling big man Jay Javelosa also contributed for the PH team, which was seeking a perfect 4-0 record last night against Saudi Arabia.

Should the Energen cagers, who unleashed a 17-0 start behind Cani against Qatar, defeat the Saudis, they will play fancied Japan today with the top spot at the end of the first round on the line.

Racela and his boys have already set their sights on the Japanese, who are playing Indonesia also at presstime hoping to likewise improve their record to 4-0.

"We're in the quarters now and that was our goal since the start," said Racela. "Now the goal is to get a better positioning after the second round and we have to beat Japan," said Racela.

"We're getting there. We've played some relatively weak teams the past three games and we've seen players developing some bad habits pero madedevelop naman natin yun," he added.