Asian Games 2023: Gilas Pilipinas hammer Qatar 80-41 to set up quarter-final date with I.R. of Iran
The Philippines overwhelm Qatar from the opening tip to the final buzzer, reaching the last eight on Tuesday vs Iran.
Basketball
The Philippines blew away Qatar 80-41 to reach the men's basketball quarter-finals at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou on Monday (2 October).
The Gilas Pilipinas more than bounced back from their defeat to Jordan on Saturday as they were up by 34 points at the half, allowing coach Tim Cone to give some much-needed rest to his starters ahead of Tuesday's quarter-final against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Junemar Fajardo and Jaymar Perez had 12 points apiece to lead the rout with Calvin Oftana chipping in 11 points.
Angelo Kouame was two points shy of a double-double with eight points and 10 boards as the Gilas cruised through the 40 minutes at Zhejiang University Zijingang Gymnasium.
Filipino point guard Chris Newsome, who had a team-high six assists, said the lopsided victory helped his team put the Jordan loss behind them.
"We just wanted to come back and bounce back," Newsome told Olympics.com. "It wasn’t the end of the road for us and there were a lot of lessons we could take from that game.
"We didn’t want to keep our heads down, we didn’t want to be down and discouraged. Today we just wanted to come out and play hard and get our confidence back.
"We understand that it’s do or die for us regardless of what happens in the rest of these games. We’re coming out with a play-off mindset. We don’t want to go home yet.
"Even though the game was pretty one-sided we can still find ways to get better and improve on."
And they will have to against an Iranian team who will be a much tougher propositiion than their fellow Middle Easterners were on Monday.
Iran have medalled at the last four Asian Games - including silver in 2014 and 2014 - and are angling for a gold which they never have won.
The Philippines have less than 24 hours to regroup for the Iran game, a hurdle they will have to clear in order to return to the Games podium for the first time since 1998.
"They’re sitting at home, they’re watching us, they’re well rested. So it’s going to be on us to come out and find the energy to play our end," Newsome said.
"For us that’s what the goal is - to get a medal of course. If that’s not the case, we’re still proud of everybody. It’s always an honour to represent and wear this jersey so I don’t think that it will be a disappointment for us.
"But of course the medal is the goal and it would mean a lot not just for us but for all of our capasometing back in the Philippines."