Huge Second-Half Outburst Propels Gilas Over Indonesia

For a team that has been losing by an average margin of 30 points against Gilas Pilipinas prior to tonight's encounter, Indonesia did a great job in staying within striking distance. For 3 and a half quarters the home managed to cut down the lead of the Filipinos to a single possession on multiple occasions during the early goings of the third quarter but for some reason, they couldn't continue their attempt to score an upset over the Filipinos.

In the end, the youth-injected Gilas Pilipinas was still too much for the Indonesians as the visitors scored a 100-70 win to open their schedule for the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers. That's another 30-point win over Indonesia.

While both teams are playing without key players including their respective naturalized players, it seems that Mark Dickel's choosing to field a young line-up for this game paid off as every player that Dickel sent onto the floor contributed.

3-time UAAP Finals MVP Thirdy Ravena led the way for the Filipinos with 23 points on 50% field goal shooting to go along with 8 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 assists. All of that in 23 minutes of action off the bench. Gilas veteran RR Pogoy added 16 points while CJ Perez had 11 points including a breakaway dunk. Team captain Kiefer Ravena and Juan Gomez De Liano finished with 10 points apiece. All Gilas players were able to score with the lone exception of Isaac Go who grabbed 7 rebounds and also had 2 steals.

On the other hand, Andakara Dhyaksa had a game-leading 28 points on 10 for 21 field goal shooting while Abraham Grahita added 17 points but Indonesia was failed by their defense as Gilas shot 43% from the field and 37% from the three-point line. The home team only shot 36% from the field and 34% from downtown. It also didn't help that Indonesia only scored 17 points in the fourth quarter while Gilas had 33 points. 

Photo is from FIBA