Phl fails to scale China, settles for silver in FIBA Asia U-16

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine national youth team went down fighting, 78-85, Friday night giving China their toughest gold medal game in the FIBA Asia Under-16 Championship at Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran.

The much undersized Filipinos settled for silver but not without a fight.

The surprised finalists were only down by four, 59-63, with 6:24 left when the defending two-time champion uncorked a 7-0 run that brought the lead to double-digits.

The Filipinos, who kept on shooting from the outside, tried to weave another magical run just like the way they toppled Chinese Taipei in the semis, but this time, they fell short.

Nonetheless, it was the first time that China won by only single digit giving some measure of pride for the silver medalists, who duplicated their senior counterparts Gilas Pilipinas’ podium finish in the FIBA Asia Men’s Championship.

China along with the Philippines will represent Asia at the 2014 FIBA World Under-17 Championship in Dubai next year.

China drew big games from 6-4 Zhao Yanhao and 6-8 Fu Hao, who exploded for 25 and 22 points, respectively.

Hao along with fellow 6-8 Hu Jinqiu dominated the boards with 33, just six less than the whole Phl team output of 39 rebounds.

Hao tallied a game-high 18 boards while Hu hauled down 15.

Ateneo prospect Jolo Mendoza paced the Filipinos with 20 points while Mike Nieto added 13 points and eight rebounds in a gallant stand against the big boys of China.

The Scores:

China 85 – Zhao 25, Fu 22, Xu 14, Hu 12, Liu 7, Luo 4, Yuan 1, Zhang 0, Wang 0, Wu 0, Shen 0.

Phl 78 – Mendoza 20, M. Nieto 13, Desiderio 11, Escoto 7, Padilla 6, Dela Cruz 6, J. Nieto 4, Go 4, Panlilio 3, Navarro 2, Abadeza 2, Dario 0.

Quarterscores: 24-20, 42-35, 59-55, 85-78.