Courtesy: POC Media
Gilas Pilipinas 3×3 Men and Women booked a spot in the quarterfinals of the 3×3 basketball competition of the 20th Asian Games, after both completing a sweep of their pool matches at the Kinjo Futo Station Square in Nagoya.
The Gilas Men quartet of Nic Cabanero, Luis Pablo, Koji Buenaflor and David Dungo overpowered Kazakhstan, 21-15, to top Pool A at the end of the preliminaries, Wednesday noon.
It was a tight clash between the Filipinos and Kazakhs, with saw five lead changes before the Filipinos, behind Dungo and Pablo, conspired a 7-to-2 run in the final 3:10 of the match to turn back their gritty rivals.
Nic Cabanero paced Gilas Men with seven markers, as Dungo finished with six points, five of which he scored in the finishing kick.
Pablo tallied five points as Buenaflor had three points and five rebounds.
The Filipinos next face the winner of the play-in match between Chinese-Taipei and Malaysia, which they will face in the quarterfinals set Thursday, at 5:30pm Philippine time.
Later in the day, the Gilas Women’s quartet of Kacey dela Rosa, Amyah Espanol, Victoria Pasilang and Kennan Ka also dispatched Malaysia, 17-12, in their final match in Pool C, to finish the preliminaries with a 3-0 slate.
Dela Rosa, who shrugged off an injury scare two days ago in the team’s opener, has continued leading the Philippines, posting eight points and seven rebounds against the Malaysians.
Pasilang added six points, as Espanol and Ka combined for three markers.
Gilas Women await the winner of the play-in match between Kazakhstan and Singapore for the quarterfinals set 6:45pm PST.
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