Balanced offense gets Philippines second win, Edu scores 16
The Philippines followed up their win over Lebanon with a victory over Syria in Day Two of the FIBA U18 Asian Championship, 92-49.
NONTHABURI (FIBA U18 Asian Championship 2018) - The Philippines followed up their win over Lebanon with a victory over UAE in Day Two of the FIBA U18 Asian Championship, 92-49.
Coach Josh Reyes decided to relax his rotations a bit, balancing the playing time of all his players to make sure that they would not burn themselves out before the following decisive game.
Despite playing in lesser minutes, AJ Edu and Kai Sotto were still the main contributors for the Philippines, combining for 32 points and 16 rebounds. The Philippines were simply dominant on the boards no matter who was on the floor, out-rebounding UAE 66-26 in the game. They translated their 26 offensive rebounds to 22 second chance points.
UAE were a little livelier after scoring only 27 points in their loss to China and were able to surpass that point total with a few minutes left in the first half against the Philippines. Alsawan and Albreiki both finished with double-digit scoring for UAE in their second straight loss.
With two minutes left in the game, Shaun Chiu made his first two points of the game to assure that everyone on the team got on the scoreboard.
The result of this game sets up two crucial deciding games for Day 3 of the FIBA U18 Asian Championship in Group D. The Philippines will play against China to decide the first placed team at 5:45 PM (GMT +7).
FIBA