Chooks Pilipinas braces for Blatche-led China Kashgar

MANILA, Philippines – Isaiah Austin and the rest of the Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas team meet in a curious face-off Andray Blatche and his China Kashgar team in the quarterfinals of the 2017 FIBA Asia Champions Cup at the Chenzhou Sports Center in Chenzhou, China Thursday night.

The two teams have found themselves in an early collision course after both dropped their closing assignments in the group plays Tuesday. They play at 7:30 p.m.

Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas failed to contain the hot-shooting former LA Clipper Willie Warren and suffered a 66-87 loss to PetroChimi of Iran, while China Kashgar bowed to Al Riyadi-Lebanon, 73-103, in a rematch of the 2016 finalists.

Blatche, flying in only on Monday, finally suited up with the Chinese but played only 10 minutes and missed two field-goal attempts.

The 6-foot-11 naturalized Filipino, however, may already be ready for a longer action Thursday night, providing extra muscles at the paint for the defending champs led at the backcourt by American spitfire Darius Anthony Adams.

Before the loss to the Lebanese, the Chinese rolled past Taipei Dacing Tigers, Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai and ONGC-India.

Chooks-to-Go, meanwhile, won over BC Astana and Mono Vampire-Thailand and dropped matches against Sareyyet Ramallah-Palestine and PetroChimi-Iran.

The Filipinos and the Chinese fight for a spot in the semifinals versus the winner of the Shabab Al Ahli-BC Astana tiff.

The other quarterfinal pairings pit PetroChimi versus Dacin Tigers and Al Riyadi opposite Mono Vampire.

Warren scattered four 3-pointers and a total of 30 points in sending the Filipinos to a knockout quarterfinals battle with the Blatche-reinforced Kashgar team.

Chooks-to-Go fell behind by a big margin on successive 3-pointers by Warren and guard Sajjad Mashayekhi in the second period.

Behind the exploits of Kiefer Ravena and Austin, the Filipinos rallied from 20 points down to come to within 10 midway through the fourth but failed to sustain the momentum of their comeback bid.

The Iranians proved too tough to handle in the end with their size and firepower.

Team Philippines was led by Ravena and Austin with 20 points apiece.