{"id":154304,"date":"2018-02-25T22:58:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T03:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=154304"},"modified":"2018-02-25T22:58:36","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T03:58:36","slug":"gilas-survives-sluggish-start-late-japan-blast-to-win-in-fiba-wcq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/25\/gilas-survives-sluggish-start-late-japan-blast-to-win-in-fiba-wcq\/","title":{"rendered":"Gilas survives sluggish start, late Japan blast to win in FIBA WCQ"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gilas<\/a>
Gilas Pilipinas bucked a slow start against Japan and took a win in Matchday 4 of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Sunday night.(Wikimedia Commons, Fair Use<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/span> \u2014 Gilas Pilipinas bucked a slow start against Japan and took a win in Matchday 4 of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on Sunday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Japan went off to a hot start, quickly opening a 20-4 lead to the shock of the jampacked venue.<\/span><\/p>\n

But just as Coach Chot Reyes inserted Kiefer Ravena to the game, the tides turned into Gilas’ favor as the team went on a 37-6 run spanning to the second quarter for a 41-26 lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

Japan inched closer with a 15-2 run lead later in the second to cut the lead to just two, 43-41, with 20.4 seconds to go in the period, but Troy Rosario announced his return to national team play with a corner triple at the halftime buzzer for a 46-41 lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

That buzzer-beating triple turned out to be spark for Gilas’ second half brilliance as the team reopened a double-digit spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

Japan still put up a fight and cut the lead down to two, 86-84, with 31.5 seconds to go, but Jayson Castro made his Gilas return felt with a dagger floater with 10.3 seconds left.<\/span><\/p>\n

Andray Blatche led Gilas, which clinched a spot\u00a0in the next round of the qualifiers after going 3-1 so far in the first round, with 18 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one block.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rosario added 14 points and four rebounds, while Kiefer Ravena had 13 points, eight coming from a 12-0 run that eventually sparked the 37-point Gilas barrage midway through the first half, two rebounds, five assists, and two steals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Castro contributed eight markers and three assists, while Jio Jalalon, the other player reactivated from injury bay for the game, made two points, two assists, and one steal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Makoto Hiejima exploded for 23 points, four caroms, two assists, and two blocks for Japan, which remained winless after four games.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2014 Gilas Pilipinas bucked a slow start against Japan and took a win in Matchday 4 of the FIBA …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":112993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[7438,5980],"class_list":["post-154304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fiba","tag-gilas-pilipinas","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}