Batang Gilas drowns UAE, 115-51
Image credit: GMANETWORK.COM
The Philippine national youth basketball team finally snatched a win as they crushed host team United Arab Emirates to a 115-51 victory to finish their campaign in a winning note in the FIBA Under-17 World Basketball Championship on Dubai.
Paul Desiderio scored a game high 25 points to lead the young Filipino cagers to a 15th-place finish out of the 16 participating teams in the tournament and to avoid going home without grabbing a victory. He also has a game high 5 assist. Captain Mike Nieto and Michael Dela Cruz added 15 points both.
Batang Gilas gets early going as they took an early lead finishing the 1st quarter with 11 point advantage, 26-15, as they dominated the entire game from the start to finish.
With a 23 point lead at the end of first half, 49-26, Batang Gilas never back down as they showed no mercy by outscoring UAE to a 40-7 third quarter. The Philippines had a commanding lead of 56 points, 89-33, as they entered the 4th quarter.
Diego Dario jumper with 1:25 left in the fourt quarter to give the Batang Gilas the highest lead of the game with 68 points.
After the FIBA Under-17 World Basketball Championship, some of the Batang Gilas players will be preparing for the FIBA Asia Under-18 Championship in Qatar this month.
