By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Gilas Pilipinas men’s national 3×3 squad ended their 2022 FIBA Asia Cup with a fourth-place finish after falling short against China during the bronze medal duel, 20-18.
Gilas marched into battle with their heads held high after eliminating the no. 1 team Mongolia during the quarterfinals, 21-20, after Almond Vosotros sank the game-winning three-pointer that set up a semifinal clash against another top team in New Zealand.
However, the national team couldn’t withstand New Zealand’s size and failed to barge into the grand finals game against Australia.
The Filipinos had a hard time banging bodies with New Zealand during the semifinals and also struggled from the perimeter – an area where they had success in previous games in the tournament.
Against China, the Filipino hoopers had a great chance of clinching the bronze medal and engaged in a toe-to-toe affair after tying the ball game at 14 at the 3:49 mark.
With China taking a one-point lead, 14-15, Vosotros once again deadlocked the game after pulling off a sweet isolation crossover move against his defender and converted the breakaway layup.
The Chinese quartet then shifted their focus in their paint scoring and took advantage of Vosotros’ size every time they ran their pick-and-roll play.
After pounding the paint against the smaller Gilas roster, China suddenly established a three-point lead, 16-19, with only a minute left in the game.
PHL’s Lervin Flores resurrected Gilas’ hopes of pulling off another upset after burying a clutch three-pointer with 35 seconds left to trim their deficit to two points, 18-20.
China committed a costly turnover that gave the PHL’s a chance to pull within a point or tie the game at 20-apiece but Vosotros’ fading trey in the left elbow missed that gave the Chinese hoopers a new lease on life with 21.6 seconds in the clock.
For the second-straight time, China gave Gilas another chance after losing their grasp of the ball with 3 seconds left but Vosotros wasn’t able to carry on with his heroics and missed the game-tying shot at the top of the key.
