COSTLY turnovers and slack defense in the final period hurt Gilas Pilipinas anew as defending champion South Korea defeated the Philippines, 91-82, in men's basketball quarterfinals of the 18th Asian Games at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Indonesia Monday.
Dabawenyo Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Commissioner
Charles Raymond Maxey, who cheered for the Gilas in their actual game, said, “Our turnovers killed us.”
He added, “The Koreans also hit the big threes down the stretch. We still can't solve South korea all these years. JC gave it his best and didn't let his countrymen down.”
Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher “Bong” Go, via Viber, said, the players made a gallant stand in trying to win the game for the country.
“South Korea proved to be a tough opponent. Despite the outcome, we are very proud of our players and coaches. They fought a good fight,” Go added.
The Philippines erupted with a 10-4 run to stretch its lead, 54-46, after barely three minutes of action in the third period.
Ilyoung Heo answered back with a jump shot and a triple followed up by Sunhyung Kim's trey to cut Gilas lead to one, 4:58.
After a huddle with coach Yeng Guiao during a timeout, Jordan Clarkson dazzled spectators with his barrage of threes, scoring perfect 3/3 beyond the perimeter as the Philippines snatched a 65-64 advantage going into the final canto.
Junbeom Jeon and Raymond Almazan then exchanged triples but Ricardo Ratliffe buried a dunk for Korea to pace, 69-68, 8:06 left in the game.
Gilas, however, succumbed to crucial miscues as the South Koreans tightened their defense. Heo fired a triple but Pringle countered with a layup to trim Korea's lead to two. But Ratliffe scored on a layup as Jeon and Kim sank back-to-back treys to pull away 80-72, 4:44 to go, despite the efforts of Clarkson and Christian Standhardinger to come back for the Gilas.
South Korea capitalized on Philippines' errors and never looked back to wrap up the match and book a semifinals seat.
Ratliffe scored game-high 30 points to lead South Korea while Kim and Heo chipped in identical 17 markers.
Clarkson and Standhardinger made 25 and 16, respectively, for the Philippines.