HUNAN, China – Gilas Pilipinas shocked
defending champion Iran, 87-72, today in the second round of the 2015 FIBA Asia
Championship to make it to the quarterfinal round.
The Filipinos will next face India after
scoring the upset win over Iran, its first since the 2011 William Jones Cup.
Gilas forced Iran’s point guard to eat his word that no team in the Asia
eliminator tournament could beat them.
Gilas shared the top of Group E with its
victim Iran on similar 3-1 win-loss cards. Iran is ranked 17th in
the world and boasts of 7’2” man-mountain Hamed Haddadi who was limited by
Gilas to just 10 points and seven rebounds.
But Gilas had to play catch-up as it started
slow and trailed by 10 points in the third quarter where the Filipinos led by
Jayson Castro ignited a big run.
Castro sizzled with a game-high 26 points. Despite spraining his ankle in Gilas’ big win against Japan the other day, Andray Blatche still soared high with 18 points and seven rebounds.
Completing a deadly scoring troika for Gilas was
Terrence Romeo who added 15 points behind a 3-for-5 scoring on the three-point
arc. Calvin Abueva fired 13 points and snared six rebounds.
The Filipinos banked on a 28-17 run in the third
quarter to take a 65-60 lead entering the fourth quarter.
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