Blue Birds advance to HK semis

MANILA, Philippines - Xin Cheng Holdings of China shot down the Ateneo-Adamson Blue Birds of the Philippines, 80-72, to relegate the Filipinos to second in their group after the preliminaries of the 18th 3-D Gold Super Kung Sheung Cup Thursday in Hong Kong.

Making the Blue Birds’ life miserable with their choking zone defense while shooting the lights out of the Queen Elizabeth Stadium on the other end, the Chinese zoomed ahead to a 40-26 halftime lead, according to a report on asia-basket.com.

Phl, composed of eight Ateneo Blue Eagles and four Adamson Falcons (thus the Blue Birds monicker), tried to mount a rally in the fourth, mainly through Kirk Long, but the Chinese fought them gun for gun, basket for basket, to preserve the win.

Xin Cheng thus took the top spot in the group and set a semifinal duel with Hong Kong, the No. 2 squad in the other bracket, on Saturday.

Despite the loss, the Phl Blue Birds still made it to the semis with a 2-1 win-loss card. The second-ranked Pinoys, though, have to face the top squad in the other grouping, the Southern California Fukienese Association (SCFA), in Saturday’s semis. The SCFA is composed mostly of African-Americans.

Long fired 26 points while Nico Salva and Oping Sumalinog made 10 apiece for the Blue Birds, who started their campaign with back-to-back wins over the Thailand National Team (83-63) and GCC Club of China (78-73).