MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas youth bowed out of the FIBA U19 World Cup after being dominated by powerhouse Serbia, 87-60 in the Round of 16 Wednesday night at the Heraklion Arena in Greece.
The Nationals ended their campaign winless in four outings. They earlier dropped all games in pool play against against Greece (85-69), Argentina (77-72) and Russia (92-64).
Ranked as the 30th best U19 team in the world, the Phl youth squad stood its ground in the early goings, staring only at an 18-22 deficit in the second period.
But the Serbians, proving their mettle as the U18 European champions, unleashed a scorching 17-1 spree to break the game wide open at 39-19.
Gunner Dave Ildefonso tried to get the Filipinos back into the game with a trey to cap a 7-0 answer but the National Youth couldn’t get closer.
With momentum on their side, the Serbians never looked back, leading by as many as 29 en route to the big win that sent them to a gigantic quarterfinals tiff with European rival and world no.3 Lithuania.
Versatile 6-foot-10 player Marco Pecarski led the way for the Serbians, posting 21 points and six rebounds.
Backstopping him were Filip Petrusev and Dalibor Ilic with 17 and 13 points, respectively.
The National Youth were simply outmatched by the European powerhouse especially with the absence of 6-foot-11 tower AJ Edu who suffered an ACL and meniscus tear on his right knee in the tournament opener against Greece.
Ildefonso, the team’s leading scorer in this U19 World Cup, racked up 18 points, three rebounds and two blocks, Kai Sotto collected 13 markers, eight boards and one block while point guard Gerry Abadiano added 12 markers.
With the loss to the Serbians, the Filipino boys have been relegated to fight for crumbs. They go up against Australia at 9:30 p.m. tonight in a 9th-16th classification match.