CHANGSHA – Gilas Pilipinas was No. 2 in scoring and rebounding and No. 5 in 3-point shooting, key factors helping the Filipinos top their bracket in the preliminary stage of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship here.
Team Phl averaged 90.5 points and 49.0 rebounds a game, placing second in both categories behind Iran (95.7 points and 50.5 rebounds).
The Filipinos hit at a 36.2-percent shooting, the fifth best among 16 teams in the prelims behind the Koreans (40.7), the Lebanese (39.3), the Taiwanese (39.2) and the Chinese (37.6).
Overall, Gilas fared well in terms of statistical numbers churned out as a team.
Individually, not a single Filipino player made the top five of any major stats department.
Andray Blatche and Jayson Castro were joint eighth in scoring with identical averages of 16.2 points a game.
Palestine’s Sani Sakakini and India’s Amjyot Singh were joint scoring leaders with 23.0 points per game, followed by another Palestinian Jamal Shamala (21.1), Qatar’s Clinton Johnson (20.6), Lebanon’s Jay Youngblood, Jordan’s Alex Legion and China’s Yi Jianlian (17.5).
Sakakini, a mainstay in the Chinese Basketball Association, also led all players in rebounding in the elims, grabbing 13.0 an outing.
Next was Joji Takeuchi, with 12.2 rebounds going with his 10th tournament-best average of 15.8 points a game.
Singapore’s Delvin Goh (10.4) was third, followed by Amjyot Singh (1.5), another Indian Amritpal Singh (9.3), Taiwanese Quincy Davis III (9.2), Kazakh Anton Ponomarev (9.1), Iranian Mohammad Saberi (8.5), Shamala (8.4) and Yi (8.2).
Blatche was at No. 12 with 8.0 per game.
The tourney’s best gunners in terms of three-point shooting percentage were Korean Yang Donggeun (59.1), Shamala (57.1), Chinese Gen Li (57.1), Chinese Peng Zhou 56.3) and Taiwanese Cheng Ju Lu (55.2).
Gilas playmaker Jayson Castro was at No. 11, hitting at a 47.8-percent clip.
Best in assists were Palestine’s Imad Qahwash (6.1), Donggeun (5.4), Indian Vishesh Bhriguvanshi (4.8), Kazakh Jerry Johnson (4.5) and Chinese Ailun Guo (3.8). Castro was the best-placed Filipino at joint 27th with 2.3 dish-offs per game.