Mason Amos flexed his might and dropped 28 points to lift Gilas U18 past Chinese Taipei, 84-73, en route to the national team's third straight win in the FIBA U18 Asian Championships at the Azadi Basketball Hall in Tehran, Iran Tuesday, Aug. 23.
Just like in their recent game against Qatar, the Filipino dribblers pulled away for good midway through the payoff period as Amos and Jared Bahay set the tone from the three-point lane.
Already up by eight points in the fourth quarter, 76-68, Amos drained a three-pointer to retake momentum and lead by as many as 11 points with 2:10 left.
After an exchange of split free throws, Amos, who also grabbed 10 rebounds, continued to wreak havoc and sank another jumper to maintain a 10-point lead, 81-71, with 1:31 left.
That proved to be dagger shot as it all boiled down to the waning seconds with a couple of free throws for both teams, enabling Gilas to sweep Group C with six points and a perfect 3-0 slate.
Amos shot 12-of-20 from the field, including four-three pointers, while James Phillip Nacua also waxed hot from beyond the arc, hitting 4-of-5 to list 16 points.
Chinese Taipei, for its part, sustained a 2-1 record and had five points.
Chun Sheng Chang paced Chinese Taipei with 24 points and six rebounds while Te Chi Hsu and Chun Yen Kuo had 14 and 11 points, respectively.