Gilas Pilipinas asserted its mastery over India, 101-59, to boost its chances of advancing to the next round of the FIBA Asia Cup 2022 on Friday, July 15 at the Istora Senayan in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Filipinos buckled down on the defensive end, forcing consecutive turnovers on the Indians to fuel a scorching second-quarter flurry and repeat their dominance over the same team they demolished in the third window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers at home earlier this month.
With the big win, Gilas improved to a 1-1 record and has an inside track of finishing either at the second or third spot of Group D to at least book a spot to the crossover qualifier for the remaining seat in the knockout stage.
Thirdy Ravena, banged up and all, set the tone for the rout as he connived with Ray Parks and the rest of Gilas guards in pressuring India and force steals that led to easy buckets.
Ravena finished with 17 points and five rebounds while Will Navarro picked up from where he left off in the loss to New Zealand and unloaded 18 points.
Parks also provided a series-long brilliance with 12 points, four assists and three steals while Kevin Quiambao continued to impress with his passing game with nine assists on top of six points.
"We wanted to come into this ball game and make sure that we come up with a better performance than our last game, that's number one, to be able to play at a certain level," said Gilas head coach Chot Reyes.
"I must admit, we started the game pretty rough but the players were able to recover and I thought we were able to put a lot of pressure on the other team. We knew that if we prevent this from becoming a half court game then it would increase our chances of winning," he added.
Muin Bek Hafeez led India with 14 points while Pranav Prince added 11 but were not enough as India is now on the brink of elimination after going winless in its first two games in the tournament.
Gilas bucked a slow start to the game, only leading by seven, 20-13, at the end of the opening frame. The Filipinos though turned their defense a notch higher in the middle quarters, limiting India to just 21 and 10 points in the second and third canto while Gilas exploded for 31 in each frame.
Gilas’ lead went to as high as 39 points, 82-43, late in the third quarter.
Next assignment for the Filipinos are the Tall Blacks who dominated Gilas, 106-60, in the World Cup qualifiers last month.