Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 30) — The Philippine men’s 5×5 basketball team absorbed its first loss in the 19th Asian Games after falling to Jordan, 87-62, at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre in China on Saturday.
The match kicked off with a tight first quarter, 16-13, in favor of Jordan.
Jordan turned up the heat in the second and increased its lead over Gilas Pilipinas to 13 points, 42-29.
The Filipinos rallied in the third and cut Jordan’s lead to just seven points at 59-52.
However, the Jordanian cagers broke away in the fourth quarter, closing the match at 87-62 and handing Gilas its first loss in this edition of the games.
Justin Brownlee, who was naturalized in January this year, scored 24 points and two rebounds, while Scottie Thompson made 11 markers and 11 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Junemar Fajardo and Japeth Aguilar scored eight points apiece with five and eight rebounds, respectively.
Gilas’ record at the quadrennial games now stands at two wins and one loss.
Following the fall, they will next face Qatar on Oct. 2 to qualify for the quarterfinals.
