Gilas Pilipinas U18 averted a late meltdown against a resilient Chinese Taipei team and eked out a 72-67 victory in their classification match of the FIBA U18 Asian Championships at the Azadi Basketball Hall in Tehran, Iran.
Mason Amos continued to provide the spark for the Filipino dribblers and fired 21 points on a 9-of-15 shooting along with six rebounds, and three assists while Jared Bahay scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds.
But multiple errors proved to be costly for the Gilas Youth as they committed 27 turnovers which enabled Chinese Taipei to get back on track in the last three minutes.
Gilas led by as many as 13 points after Earl Jared Abadam fired a three-pointer at the 3:16 mark, 70-57, but the Chinese Taipei side showed steely nerves and did not waver, exhausting their attempts to keep the match within striking distance.
Chinese Taipei uncorked a commanding 11-2 run and stopped the bleeding on its end as Gilas only converted a jumper courtesy of Amos in that span.
Time, however, isn't on Chinese Taipei's side despite getting as close as five points, 72-67, after Chun Yen Kuo's layup with 26 seconds left.
Wei Chieh Yeh paced Chinese Taipei with 17 points while Te Chi Hsu and Chun Yen contributed 16 and 12 points, respectively.
The Philippines will next face Iran on Sunday, Aug. 28, in their battle for fifth place.
Iran earlier routed Qatar, 82-45, in another classification match.