INCHEON, South Korea -- Gilas Pilipinas bowed out of contention despite pulling off a 67-65 win against Kazakhstan on Sunday to conclude the quarterfinal round in the 17th Asian Games at the Hwaseong Gymnasium outside this city.
Gilas entered the game needing at least an 11-point win to stay alive. For a while, they appeared on track after erecting an 18-point lead, 50-32, on Jimmy Alapag's and-1 in the third quarter.
But Kazakhstan, who now hopes for a Korea win over Qatar later in the night to make it to semis, slowly chipped the lead away.
Kazakhstan outscored Gilas, 26-15, in the fourth quarter. With the quotient at the back of their minds, Gilas' naturalized center Marcus Douthit was forced to score on Kazakhstan's basket to tie the game but the Iranian referee nullified it in what came down as the lowest point of Phl basketball after enjoying lofty pre-tournament billing owing to a solid showing in the FIBA World Cup recently.
"Unfortunately we had to do something like that because we had to survive," Gilas coach Chot Reyes said after the game.
"We asked the referee from Korea or Japan of it was allowed. So we did it. The Iranian referee nullified it," he added.
Marcus Douthit returned from a one-game suspension for disciplinary reasons and carried Gilas to a 14-point halftime lead.
He scored eight and grabbed nine rebounds plus swatted away three shots in a solid return in the first half as Gilas led, 35-21.
Kazakhstan, however, found its range from beyond the arc as Pavel Ilin hurt Gilas with 21 points, hitting three from afar.
Douthit finished 18 points, 14 rebounds and three shot blocks while Jimmy Alapag came away with 11 points despite playing with a calf injury.
"We are now out of contention for a medal. And that's the story of this ball game," Reyes said.
Gilas came in the tournament as one of the favorites to advance to the medal round but a tough loss to Iran followed by a shocking upset at the hands of Qatar led to their unceremonious exit in this tournament.
"But really the story of this tournament was that loss to Qatar," Reyes said.
After Gilas collapsed in a tough 68-63 loss to Iran, they came out flat and fell to Qatar, 77-68, as Reyes called out Douthit for 'quitting' on the team.
Douthit was suspended in their all-important game against Korea and for a while, Gilas looked like they are good off him.
They built a 16-point lead in the third canto but just like the same old script in their games here, they blew it in the fourth quarter. Korea dealt them a 97-95 heartbreaker that virtually booted them out. Until Kazakshtan gave them a slim chance of advancing after beating Qatar, 65-58, in the Saturday nightcap.
Gilas, however, blew it once again in a win that felt like a loss.