Gilas mauled a second time by South Korea

MANILA, Philippines — It looked like Gilas Pilipinas’ Asian Games crew got a taste of the old “Korean curse” when it tested the waters in its sorties in Suwon, South Korea.

The Philippine quintet, composed of stalwarts outside of Tim Cone’s main group and formed barely a month ago, struggled to go toe-to-toe against a well-oiled Korean squad that dominated their two-game, pre-Asiad series.

After their 55-81 loss Friday, the Nationals sought to get their act together and strike back in yesterday’s rematch but found themselves yielding another blowout, 42-69, at the Suwon KT Sonicboom Arena.

It was a nightmarish opening quarter for the Pinoy dribblers, who after drawing first blood via Sedrick Barefield, gave up 19 unanswered points to allow the home side to seize full control in Game 2.

Gilas scored a meager four points in the first 10 minutes of action with Brandon Ganuelas Rosser accounting for the other deuce from the stripe with a second left to make it a 19-4 count.

The one-way street continued with the Koreans, bannered by their core from the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, pouncing on a Philippine side toiling without Justin Brownlee and with little time to achieve cohesion and match fitness.

Zav Lucero shot 14 to go with six rebounds to lead Gilas while Adrian Nocum added nine and Justine Baltazar, one of only two holdovers from the WCQ roster, hauled 10 boards.