THE Philippine team bungled any chance to win a medal in the Fiba 33 event of the Asian Youth Games after losing two straight matches the other day at the Anglican School in Singapore.

The RP team, coached by Eric Altamirano, reached the semifinals after winning every single game in the tournament.

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However, in the semifinals against China, the RP team looked headed for victory before they crumbled at crunchtime and China beat them to the magic number—33.

In Fiba 33, teams play for three periods of five minutes each and the team that scores 33 points first will win the game even if time has not yet expired.

And this was what happened in the game against China.

China moved to the gold medal round after defeating RP, 34-31.

The RP team led 29-26 towards the end of the second period when China’s Li Wei Ji sank the triple.

China then snatched the lead at the end of the second, 31-29.

The RP team tied the match for the last time at 31 before China sealed the win with Li’s free throw and another shot, to with still more than four minutes to spare.

The RP team, composed of Mike Tolomia, Mario Bonleon, Jeron Alvin Teng and Jeoffrey Javillonar, had a chance to at least win a bronze, but playing back-to-back games and right after an eventful loss to China took its toll and they lost to Korea in the battle for third, 33-29.

The RP team remained at 18th place in the 43-nation event of the inaugural youth games with its lone medal, a silver, courtesy of thrower Stephanie Cimato.

Cimato only won a silver because there were only two contenders in the girls javelin throw event.

China still has the overall title in the bag with a 21-8-5 gold-silver-bronze medal tally with only two days left of competition.

Korea is second with 13-11-12, while Japan is third with 5-6-1.

In swimming, although she failed to win a medal, Jasmine Alkhaldi managed to beat the time needed in the 50-meter butterfly to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games in 2010.