Gilas Pilipinas used its height and speed advantage to stop the prolific Chitchai Ananti and slam Thailand, 108-53, on Tuesday night at the Araneta Coliseum.
With Ananti held scoreless in the 15 minutes he saw action, Team Pilipinas had little trouble posting their fourth straight triumph in the 2017 Southeast Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) men’s basketball championship.
Six-foot-nine Japeth Aguilar topscored for Gilas with 23 points, while Calvin Abueva had 15 points in a big effort that put the Team Pilipinas to a share of the lead with Indonesia.
Indonesia and the Philippines are both in contention for a qualification slot to 2017 FIBA Asia Cup.
If both stay undefeated on Wednesday, their game on Thursday will turn into a do-or-die finals encounter.
Coach Chot Reyes said they made an effort to stop Ananti all throughout and first had Terrence Romeo keeping an eye on him, before Abueva and Jio Jalalon took turns in guarding him.
“It was important to our defensive game plan, which was to shut down their best scorer," said Reyes.
Romeo and the 6'11" Andray Blatche finished with 11 points for Gilas, who got challenged by Thailand only in the first 10 minutes of the game.
That was when the Thais got their only taste of the lead off Chanachon Klahan’s trey in the last 6:14 of the first period, 8-7.
But, JuneMar Fajardo gave the lead back to the Philippines with his jumper, 9-8.
Fajardo’s charity and another jumper with 3:28 left in period then saw Gilas moving away, 14-9.
In the second period, Blatche and Aguilar spearheaded a 9-0 blast that handed them a 27-16 spread with 7:57 left in the second canto.
A 10-0 run touched off by Aguilar later saw Gilas moving up by 19, 37-18, in the remaining 5:17 of the third. They found themselves taking a 25-point spread, 51-26, off Jalalon’s attack in the final two seconds before the half ended.
