Batang Gilas slays Indonesia in SEABA U16 tournament

MANILA, Philippines – Batang Gilas continues to show who’s boss in the SEABA Under-16 Championship tournament as they clobbered Indonesia, 96-73, Monday, May 15 at the Smart Araneta Colisuem.

The Philippine team started strong, limiting Indonesia to shooting only 13-of-48 attempts in the first two quarters of the match. As expected, Batang Gilas also dominated in terms of rebounds with a total of 55 combined boards.

Though Batang Gilas owned the game from start to finish, coach Michael Oliver is unsatisfied with the performance his boys displayed.

Batang Gilas managed to maintain a 30-point advantage early in the second half but as it lost its aggressiveness during the third quarter, Indonesia rallied to trim the lead to 21 markers in the last canto.

“They (Batang Gilas) became lax especially when they saw their opponents were smaller than them,” said coach Michael Oliver. “The players felt that they were too ahead and assumed Indonesia was just going to give the game away. They also got lucky with their outside shooting.”

Team Philippines’ paid the consequence for its lack of intesity and let Indonesia slasher Alexandre Felix connect two treys in the first few minutes of the final quarter to cut down the Batang Gilas’ lead to 20 points.

According to coach Oliver, the team challenged Indonesia’s pressure defense instead of passing relays, “We don’t have short passes anymore. That’s why we committed a lot of turnovers.”

Speed was also a factor that limited Batang Gilas from totally crushing its opponent as majority of the Indonesians are smaller than the Philippines’ pool of players.

“We have a lot of work to do,” coach Oliver said.

Mclaude Guandana lifted the Batang Gilas in his first triple-double in the tourney: 19 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists. Christian Calimag made his presence felt the entire match and contributed 17 marker and two boards for Team Pilipinas.

Shooting guard Felix scored 18 points while Darrly Sebastian pinched in 16 markers, 4 steals and 5 rebounds for Indonesia.

Batang Gilas will face Thailand for its next game on Wednesday, May 17.– Rappler.com

Scores:

Philippines (96) – Guadana 19, Calimag 17, Sotto 12, Cortez 10, Lina 9, Fortea 8, Pascual 6, Padrigao 4, Tan 4, Lazaro 3, Go 2, Chiu 2

Indonesia (73) – Felix 18, Sebastian 16, Kotaro 8, Patiara 7, Hady 5, Bonfilio 5, Fernanda 4, Fawwaz 4, Rovert 4, Linduaji, Olindo 0, Tarigan 0

Quarter Scores: 33-17, 58-28, 77-51, 96-73