Clarkson 3rd quarter explosion gives Philippines first win

MANILA (Philippines) - Jordan Clarkson exploded for 24 points in the third quarter to carry hosts Philippines past China 92-73 for their first victory of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 and also make the 2024 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

Clarkson finished with 34 points as Philippines rewarded a crowd of 11,080 at the Manila Araneta Coliseum with the win in the Classification 17-32 Group M. The hosts avoided becoming the third host nation to go winless at a World Cup, following Philippines in 1978 and Columbia in 1982.

The victory improved Philippines' all-time mark against China to 10-6. It was the first time these teams faced off in the World Cup and the second meeting on the global stage after Philippines' 51-32 win in the 1948 Olympics.  

Turning Point: The game had been tight throughout and was even 48-48 in the third quarter and then Jordan Clarkson took center stage. He scored 20 points including 5 straight three-pointers in a 25-2 surge to lead 73-50 and put the game to bed. A shooting fury.

TCL Player of the Game: Jordan Clarkson gave the fans a true show for the ages in the third quarter alone - to make him the easy choice for TCL Player of the Game. Clarkson ended the game with 34 points including 5 three-pointers to go with 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. Clarkson out-scored China alone 24-11 in the third quarter.

Stats Don't Lie: Philippines committed only 9 turnovers and shot 62 percent on two-pointers. The home side also held China to just 24 percent from long range and out-rebounded them 46-31 including 13 offensive rebounds.

Bottom Line: Philippines and China both missed out on qualifying directly to the 2024 Olympics as the best placed team from Asia but Philippines booked a spot in the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

They Said: "We just asked the players today to play with joy in their hearts and to dig deep. In fact, we didn't have any X's and O's in our pregame board. We just had two words, dig deep. And that's what the players did. Playing for nothing but pride, but we wanted to gift the Filipino people with something to end our World Cup, and the players did it." - Philippines coach Chot Reyes

"My teammates found me in transition, getting some open shots. I feel like this whole World Cup I really haven't been able to get free and get into a super crazy rhythm just because how defenses were playing and stuff like that. But I just continued to stay with it. My teammates found me, got me open, I just made shots. It was great.
(About the fan support) Fans continued to support us. We definitely wanted to get a win and go home with one at least. But yeah, they showed love the whole time, supported us, stayed behind us, so we kept continuing to fight." - Philppines guard Jordan Clarkson

"That's what we wanted. We just want to win and just keep fighting. It means a lot for us because everybody's wanted us to win especially on the home court." - Philippines guard Scottie Thompson

"Congratulations to the Philippines team. They took advantage of our loss of focus and concentration and understanding of how we should have played this third quarter. And they did exactly what we were preparing for them not to do. We just took some quick shots on our side, very rushed shots that didn't go in. And they were just taking advantage of that - put-back, put-back, one-on-one. We didn't focus on our tasks on how to defend their one-on-one players, especially Clarkson in that third quarter. We did a pretty good job in the beginning but that is basketball. Once you are tired, once the difficulties start, you have to use your head. And we did not use our heads the proper way in the second half." - China coach Aleksandar Djordjevic

"I want to say sorry. We let our Chinese fans down, and after this game I have a deeper understanding of basketball. I will change my practice and attitude. As a guard, I didn’t lead my team well. I will improve that." - China guard Rui Zhao

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