SINGAPORE - The Philippines beat Timor Leste, 126-21, on Friday to sweep the preliminaries of the 28th Southeast Asian Games men's basketball tournament at the OCBC Arena.
The Gilas Pilipinas cadets were in cruise mode but were still able to win by 105 points without much effort, in the process completing a 3-0 (win-loss) sweep of their bracket in the eliminations.
The Philippines, which played without naturalized player Marcus Douthit, opened a 40-3 lead after the first quarter and the league swelled with Timor Leste unable to score in double digits in any of the four quarters.
"It was what we expected and I was happy that they went out there, worked on offensive stuff and just respect that Timor Leste is giving their best and we didn't want to do anything to embarass the game and embarass the opponent," said head coach Tab Baldwin.
"We didn't try to run fastbreaks during the game. We didn't feel that we didn't need a layup drill. Its not in the best interest of everybody," said Baldwin.
The Gilas cadets will play the loser of the Thailand-Singapore match in the crossover semifinals on Sunday. The match was ongoing at posting time.
The scores:
Philippines (126) — Rivero 24, Ferrer 19, Amer 14, Ravena 12, Vosotros 12, Torres 11, Rosario 9, Thompson 5, Khobuntin 5.
Timor Leste (21) — Miranda 6, Soares A. 4, Pereira 3, Das Dores 3, Binsasi 2, Soares P. 0, Coreira 0, Da Silva 0, Pinto 0, Piter 0.
Quarterscores: 40-3, 63-11, 99-16, 126-21.
Source: Reuben Terrado of Spin.ph
