In front of a sellout crowd that included President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., Jordan Clarkson stamped his class all-game long as Gilas Pilipinas routed Saudi Arabia, 84-46, in the fourth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers on National Heroes day on Monday, Aug. 29.
Clarkson helped the Filipinos buck a slow start before spearheading a huge third-quarter explosion to shake off a gritty Arabs squad before a crowd of 19,829.
The Utah Jazz guard dazzled with an array of highlight plays, long three-pointers, and a thunderous dunk to finish with 23 points, six assists and five rebounds as he picked up his first win in Gilas uniform and homecourt debut in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments.
Young guns Kai Sotto and Dwight Ramos continued to impress with the former posting a double-double effort of 16 points and 13 rebounds while the latter finished with nine points and six rebounds including an emphatic dunk against Arab center Mohammed Almarwan with 3:31 left in the first half.
The Filipinos had to buck some jitters in the opening quarter which allowed Saudi Arabia to take a 14-11 lead. Clarkson kept Gilas afloat during that span, scoring all of the field goals for a nine-point first-quarter output before the rest of the crew got their bearings going in the second quarter.
An alley-oop from Clarkson to Sotto before another and-1 play lit the fire for the nationals as they tasted the lead, 21-18, midway through the second quarter.
A back-breaking 24-8 third-quarter explosion spearheaded by Clarkson, Sotto and Ramos ultimately took the fight out of Saudi Arabia as Gilas built a 61-36 heading into the payoff period.