Batang Gilas leaves FIBA tiff with optimism

DUBAI – The Philippines will check out of this bustling desert resort Sunday, claiming that the dismal setback in the FIBA U17 World Championship is just a prelude to something bigger.

The Batang Gilas bombed out of this prestigious tournament without a win in six games, losing by an average margin of 26.1 points to world superpowers like the United States, France, Greece and Argentina.

They closed out their campaign against lowly United Arab Emirates late Saturday, but the result hardly mattered as the winner will only get to clinch the 15th place in this 16-nation field.

"This is not yet the end. This is just the beginning for RP Youth basketball," said head coach Jamike Jarin, the Ateneo de Manila mentor who steered Batang Gilas to a bridesmaid finish in the Fiba Asia U16 Championship in Tehran last year.

"This is just the start of our campaign in the world stage."

But against Egypt late Friday at the Al Shabab Arena, in a match where they could have salvaged the 13th place, the Batang Gilas were a picture of frustration.

With top gun Jolo Mendoza sidelined a hamstring injury, the Philippines struggled offensively and fell to a 17-point disadvantage at halftime, 32-49, before cutting it down to 12 in the opening minutes of the third period, 38-50.

That proved to be the last kick of Batang Gilas as Ahmed Metlawy and 6-foot-7 slotman Ahmed Khalaf asserted their dominance to blow the lead to 26, 88-62, entering the final two-minute mark en route to an easy 92-67 win.

Mike Nieto and Jollo Go carried the scoring burden as they finished with 20 and 17 points, respectively, for the Filipinos, who were battered inside with only 31 rebounds compared to the Egyptians 61 pulls.

The Egyptians, on the other hand, leaned on Metwaly's 24 points and 12 rebounds as well as Khalaf's 19 markers and 13 boards.

"Again, the game plan of all the teams is to pound it inside," Jarin said. "We missed the services of Jolo and we shot poorly tonight. But on a positive note, we got the chance to play against the powerhouses of the entire world."

From here, the coaching staff together with three Batang Gilas in Go, Richard Escoto and Paul Desiderio will roll to the Qatari capital of Doha to join nine other teammates, led by Kobe Paras and Aaron Black, in their campaign in the Fiba Asia U18 Championship starting next week.

The scores:

Egypt 92 – Metwaly 24, Khalaf 19, Abdelrahman 18, Elsheikha 11, Safyeldin 7, Elsafwany 7, Farag 4, Hussein 2, Mohamed 0, Elmorsy 0, Bakr 0, Saadelin 0,

Philippines 67 – Nieto Mike 20, Go 17, Desiderio 11, Escoto 6, Nieto Matt 3, Dario 2, Navarro 2, Panlilio 2, Dela Cruz 2, Abadeza 2, Padilla 0, Mendoza 0

Quarterscores: 32-19, 49-32, 66-46, 92-67