Klutch Kai Rescues Batang Gilas, Tows Them To 67-52 Win!

At halftime, it seemed like Batang Gilas' worst nightmares were about to become a reality, as they trailed Bahrain 26-34.

The Bahrainis were persistent, speedy, confident, and utterly fearless so, despite trailing 24-11 at the end of the 1st quarter, they had managed to wrest the lead away from Batang Gilas. Only AJ Edu could get anything going against Bahrain and it looked like it wouldn't be enough.

So, at the beginning of the second half, Batang Gilas found themselves a little bit lost and searching for answers. Kai Sotto decided to BE the answer. He demanded for the ball, despite Edu being in the game with him. He crashed the boards for putbacks. He waited patiently for drop passes and entry passes into the post, instead of being frustrated by the physicality his smaller opponents got away with.

FIBA U18 Quarterfinals Predictions

Action heats up in the quarterfinal round of the FIBA Asia quarterfinal round.

Here are my picks.

IRAN vs NEW ZEALAND

Pretty even match up but I'm picking New Zealand to win over Iran, 70-66. James William Moors and Kruz Perrott-Hunt will be too much for Iran.

PHILIPPINES vs BAHRAIN

Batang Gilas has, on paper, the easiest matchup. They should win 80-60, courtesy of double-double machine AJ Edu, with help from Kai Sotto, Dave Ildefonso, and Dalph Panopio.

AUSTRALIA vs JAPAN

Love Japan but Australia is on a different class, not just compared to Japan but to everyone else in the competitions. Australia should win 100-70, led by tournament stud Sam Froling.

CHINA vs KOREA

Now this should be the most exciting matchup of the day. Conventional wisdom says China should win but I'm picking Korea to go through, 70-65. Batang Gilas has shown how teams can neutralize China (even with Guo Haowen running amuck) and Korea is disciplined enough to run the Chinese defense to the ground.

Now let the games begin!

The Importance of the Batang Gilas vs Bahrain Game

This, in my humble opinion, is the most important game for the U18 Batang Gilas team.

Why? Win this and you go to the FIBA U19 World Championships. Lose this and no one will remember you beat China in the group stages.

Here are three things to look out for:

Thing #1 Batang Gilas Dominance, Stat-wise
Batang Gilas leads Bahrain in most categories,  averaging waaaay more points (80-66.8), rebounds (58-38), blocks (6-3) and assists (17-8) per game, as well as shooting better from the three point line (30% - 27.5%) and the free throw line (72%-54%)

If we look only at those stats, then Batang Gilas should be able to handle the Bahrainis easily.

What Gilas U18 Upsetting China 73-63 Means

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Coming into last night's Batang Gilas game versus China, realists (such as myself) were hoping for a win but knew that history wasn't on our side. After all, China has beaten the Philippines on the last three U18 games they've played by an average margin of 33 points.

Still, that's why you play the game and we still all hoped for a victory or, at the very least, a good showing.

And then Batang Gilas showed us exactly how great they already are. They went ahead to upset tournament favorites China,73-63, and they did it with style, substance, and poise.

After all, the final score doesn't do justice to the thumping the Batang Gilas boys gave the Chinese. At one point, Batang Gilas actually led by 18. As China made their final run, the boys kept their calm and won by making crucial defensive stops and then hitting their free throw.

Here are three things this game eatblished about this Batang Gilas team:

Hail The World Champions from Tanauan! Wait, who?

It really is a sad world when a senior league girls softball team from Tanauan makes history by being the first Asian team (yep, not just the first Filipino team or Southeast Asian team but first ASIAN team) to win the world championship...and no one in the Philippines notices.

So let's get to rectifying that.

The seniors league girls team from Tanauan represented Asia Pacific in the 2018 Senior League Softball World Championship Series and made it all the way to the finals, where they absolutely demolished Texas by a score of 7-0.

Royevel Palma was superb on the mound and ably supported at the plate with multiple hits by Marika Manaig, April Rosita, and Joyce Rasco.

Here's the offical writeup from the Little League site.

Here's the only clip of the girls left on Youtube. (Other clips were removed by Youtube)

For a country desperate for any sort of international achievement, anything we could be proud of, we are doing a darned good job ignoring world class perfromances like this one.

Good job, girls. And thank you for bring honor and glory to the Philippines.

Initial Thoughts On The Asiad Gilas Team

In the latest episode of the nation's most gut-wrenching basketball drama, the SBP once again changed their minds and are now sending a team to the Asian Games in Indonesia.

They are now going back to their original plan, which is to send the core group of the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters and to augment that with a few key additions from other teams.

Here's the final lineup:
Maverick Ahanmisi (RoS)
Raymond Almazan (RoS)
Beau Belga (RoS)
Gabe Norwood (RoS)
Chris Tiu (RoS)
James Yap (RoS)
Stanley Pringle (Globalport)
Christian Standhardinger (San Miguel)
Paul Lee (Magnolia)
JP Erram (Blackwater)
Don Trollano (Talk 'N Text)
Asi Taulava (NLEX)
Kobe Paras (Cadets)
Ricci Rivero (Cadets)

Batang Gilas U18 Wins Against Lebanon, 75-53.

It was the result we expected, with some very unexpected revelations.

The Batang Gilas U18 team was touted to be the best we've sent to this event...ever. And this was its first ever game, with young behemoths Kai Sotto and AJ Edu finally teaming up together. The Lebanese, on the other hand, weren't as well known nor did they have high expectations.

So when Dave Ildefonso started out on fire, scoring 11 of Batang Gilas' first 21 points, outscoring the entire Lebanon team by himself (they had 9 at this point), it seemed like a game that would be amusing but not exciting.