By REYNALD MAGALLON
The Gilas Pilipinas boys’ team came up short with its fourth quarter rally and dropped an 80-75 defeat against Japan in the classification round of the 2026 FIBA U18 Asia Cup at the Veer Savarkar Stadium in Ahmedabad, India on Saturday, Aug. 22.
The Nationals, who trailed for the most part of the contest, tried to mount a comeback in the final frame but timely hits from the Japanese ultimately took the fight out of the Filipinos.
Gilas trailed by as many as 14 points in the contest but efforts from Chog Moral and JD Cagurungan cut the deficit to just four, 67-64 with a little more than three minutes left in the contest.
Japan, however, had its answers to every Gilas run to keep the Filipinos at bay.
Moral once again paced Gilas with 21 points, four rebounds and four assists while George Green and Patrick Pasinos tried to provide support with 10 apiece.
Kenichiro Benedict, on the other hand, led Japan with 20 points while Cayman Tsuneoka and Kaito Nakamura had 15 and 13, respectively.
With the loss, Gilas is relegated to the battle for the seventh and eight spot against the loser in the clash between Iran and Chinese Taipei. The winner, meanwhile, will take on Japan for the fifth spot in the tournament.
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