Metro Manila, Philippines – Gilas Pilipinas’ gold medal defense in the Asian Games came to a devastating end after absorbing a 105-61 loss to China at the Aichi International Arena in Nagoya, Japan on Monday, Sept. 14.
The Philippines needed a victory or a loss by fewer than 37 points in this match to emerge as one of the two best third-placed teams in the tournament, and advance to the quarterfinals.
Gilas was carrying a +27 point differential heading into the game and was the best third-placed squad at the time. The blowout loss eliminated the national team from the medal race.
The Philippines was still in contention for the quarterfinals despite trailing 30-66 at the halftime break. But China was determined to exact revenge after losing to Gilas in the semifinals of the last edition of the Asian Games on its home turf in Hangzhou.
With the loss of the Philippines, Jordan and Saudi Arabia secured the last two quarterfinal spots after becoming the two best third-placed teams with an identical 1-2 win-loss record and point differential of -5 and -11, respectively.
Gilas also had a 1-2 win-loss slate, but had a -17 point difference.
Calvin Oftana was the lone Filipino player to score in double digits with 13 points, while Sedrick Barefield and Don Trollano dropped nine points and seven points, respectively, for the Philippines.
