By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
THE Philippines halted a two-game losing skid at the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers after hacking out a 92-81 victory over Qatar in their Group F encounter played behind closed doors on Monday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Using a better showing in the second half, the Philippines successfully overcame a rough start to book the victory and go back on the winning track.
Prior to the victory, the Philippines suffered back-to-back losses to Australia on July 2 and Iran on Sept. 13.
The Philippines-Qatar contest started tight, with the two teams fighting to an 8-7 count and the home team on top with 7:14 to go.
Qatar, however, would make a 12-0 run, on the strength of three consecutive triples, in the next three minutes to build a 19-8 advantage.
Marcio Lassiter tried to jump-start the Philippines’ offense after but Qatar would stave off any charge back to hold a 26-15 lead after the first canto.
The visitors continued to hold sway to start the second period, extending their lead to 17 points, 43-26, with a little over four minutes left.
The Philippines scrambled to regain lost ground and had some success as it cut its deficit to just nine points, 45-36, at the 1:42 mark.
Qatar though would regain its footing and reestablish control, 52-39, by the halftime break.
Coming out with more energy and aggressiveness on both ends to begin the third period, the Philippines managed to gain headway in its fight back.
Led by Scottie Thompson, Matthew Wright and Beau Belga, the Filipinos came within two points, 54-52, with 5:26 left.
They eventually seized the lead, 59-58, at the 3:19 mark off a Japeth Aguilar basket.
The Philippines built on it the rest of the way to regain control after 30 minutes of play, 67-64.
The hosts kept giving it to the Qataris at the start of the payoff quarter, stretching their lead to seven points, 71-64, after a minute and a half.
Mohd Yousuf Mohammed kept Qatar in the game with his play inside the paint.
The count stood at 80-69 for the Philippines with 4:22 left on the clock before the hosts sped further, 86-70, by the 3:04 mark.
Team Pilipinas would use the clock after before holding on for the win.
Mr. Aguilar and Alex Cabagnot led the Philippines with 16 points apiece with Stanley Pringle adding 13 and Beau Belga 11 points, respectively.
Mr. Mohammed paced Qatar with 26 points with Tanguy Alban H Ngombo and Nasser Khalifa Al-Rayes adding 17 each.
“First half was just bad from a shooting perpective. These are the best shooters in the land and yet they were missing. But I just told them at halftime just shoot and don’t mind the percentage and stick to the game plan,” said Philippines coach Yeng Guiao in the postgame press conference.
“The guys really wanted to win and it showed with how they defended in the second half,” added the coach whose wards played the game behind closed doors as part of the sanctions meted by world basketball governing body FIBA on the Philippines for its role in a brawl with Australia in their July game.
With the win, the Philippines created further separation with its closest pursuer in Group F, Japan, which improved to 4-4 after cutting down Iran in an earlier match on Monday, 70-56.
As of this writing, Australia leads the merged Group F with a 7-1 record, followed by Iran (6-2), the Philippines (5-3), Japan, Kazakhstan (3-5) and Qatar (2-6).
The top three teams at the end of the second round advance to the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
The fifth window of the Asian Qualifiers will be played in November and December.

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