PHI / KOR - Smart Gilas finish 5th, Sangmoo 7th

JAKARTA (FIBA Asia Champions Cup) - Smart Gilas Philippines held off hosts Satria Muda's late surge and eked out a 112-107 win in Overtime to secure the fifth place in the 20th FIBA Asia Champions Cup on Wednesday.

Having trailed their fellow SEABA rivals close throughout, Satria made their move in the closing moments, when Faisal Julius followed up his three-pointer with the twin successes from the foul-line to level the score at 94.

American Nakiea Miller scored 17 of his game-high 41 points in the fourth quarter to lead the hosts' rally.

Miller was 6/7 in field (including converting both his two three-pointer attempts) and 3/4 in free-throws in the fourth quarter.

But once he left the court committing his fifth personal foul with 3:53 left in Overtime, Satria's fortunes suffered a setback.

Smart Gilas who let their rivals off the hook closed the game with some solid defense.

Mark Barocca led an all-round scoring show for Smart Gilas with 31 points.

Earlier, Korean Army outfit Sangmoo led throughout the game to down Young Cagers India 72-61 and finish seventh.

The Indian combination having conceded a substantial lead in the opening minutes made a fight of it towards the end of the game.

They even managed to level the score at 57 with about four minutes left in the game. But one too many nervous fumbles led to their downfall.

Scores

5th place play-off

Smart Gilas 112 (Mark Barocca 31, CJ Giles 24, Dylan Ababou 20, John Ramos 14, Chris Tiu 14) bt Satria 107 (Nakiea Miller 41, Faisal Julius 23, Amin Prihantono 17). Quarterwise Scores: 26-24, 47-44, 68-57, 94-94.

7th place play-off

Sangmoo 72 (Hee Jong Yang 22, Bong Su Kim 15, Byung Kook Chong 10) bt Young Cagers 61 (Jagdeep Singh 18, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 16, Trideep Rai 10). Quarterwise Scores: 29-14, 38-32, 51-48.

S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia