Gilas Pilipinas crushes India to gain top seeding into quarterfinals

(MENAFN- Arab News) CHANGSHA China: Nothing beats hard work.
Starting out listlessly after coming off its biggest victory yet in the Fiba Asia Championship Gilas Pilipinas on Tuesday labored hard before finding a rhythm and dispatching of India 99-65 to earn top seeding in its bracket for the lightest assignment in the quarterfinals at the Changsha Social Work College Gym here.
The Filipinos played with the full court press defense all game preventing the Indians from breaking away despite their hesitant start and went on to sweep their second round matches for a 4-1 card and draw Lebanon in the first round of the KO stages.
Coming off a mammoth 87-73 win against defending champion Iran many thought that the Filipinos would just need to go through the motions to dispose of India.
But the sharpness that they played with against Iran was never there early as the Indians even took an 18-17 lead at the end of the first period and were on their way to building up their confidence.
It took Terrence Romeo and Calvin Abueva coming off the bench late in the first period for the Philippine guns to start connecting.
'We were kind of flat (in the first half) again their zone (defense) contributed to that' Gilas coach Tab Baldwin said. 'But again our energy guys kind of got us through the first half and as a team we found a lot of energy in the second half.'
There were six Filipinos who finished in twin digits with Romeo scoring in streaks to pace all shooters with 20. The spike-haired point guard who also did a lot of damage on Iran on Monday hit eight in the second period.
A 24-0 run early in the fourth quarter had the Philippines scampering to an insurmountable lead with Romeo hitting nine more in the streak.
Team Philippines is looking to win this tournament for the first time since 1986 when a squad bankrolled by former Ambassador Eduardo 'Danding' Cojuangco and coached by Ron Jacobs triumphed in Ipoh Malaysia.
That team has Chip Engelland and Jeff Moore and was poised for Asian domination before People Power happened and forced Cojuangco into exile.
Things are looking bright in this tournament for the Filipinos after Qatar defeated South Korea late on Monday 69-63 which eased the Koreans out of the semifinal picture for Gilas.
China was left as the only undefeated team in the tournament after bamboozling the Qataris on Tuesday night. The Chinese bannered by four 7-footers led by NBA veteran Yi Jilian will clash with India in the quarterfinals also on Thursday.
The tournament takes its final rest day on Wednesday and Baldwin welcomes this to be able to fully prepare for the Lebanese whom he described as 'capable like everyone else in winning this championship.'
'He (Lebanese coach Vesilin Metic) wants you (media) to believe that they are the underdogs and all those things' Baldwin said. 'He just wants the media to print that. But let me tell you all of the things he said are rubbish.'
Andray Blatche scored 15 points in 25 minutes but was far from the player that he was against Hamed Haddadi on Monday.
Ranidel de Ocampo has been a steady force on both ends for the Filipinos shooting 13 with Abueva Marc Pingris and Jason Castro all finishing with 12 markers.
'Kudos to our boys for coming out in the second half and really putting the Indians under pressure' Baldwin said.
'This is where we came to be. We didn't necessarily plan to be here in this way through the pathway that we took. But we're here' Baldwin added.
'Now the games are tough. All the opponents are tough' he said.