Gilas boys routed by China

MANILA, Philippines -- Gilas Pilipinas absorbed a beating at the hands of China, 117-103, in the quarterfinal round of the FIBA Asia Cup U18 Friday afternoon at the Veer Savarkar Indoor Stadium in India.

The spirited run of the Philippines came to an end on Friday against China, which finished on top of Group C. 

Gilas trailed by double digits as early as the first quarter, which put them at a disadvantage the rest of the way. 

Chog Moral had his best outing in the Asia Cup in the loss, finishing with 26 points, to go with two rebounds, an assist and six steals. Luke Atacador added 14 markers. 

China jumped right from the get-go, going up by 13, 33-20, at the end of the first quarter. 

While Gilas kept in step in the coming frames, the Chinese were just too good to shut off, as their lead grew to as much as 24 points in the third quarter, 85-61, after a triple by Chunzhi Zhang. 

Gilas, though, could not inch to single digit as the 14-point spread at the end was the nearest they got to.

Zichao Wang and Yuxiu Chen paced China with 25 and 23 points, respectively. Xuan Hao had 16 markers for the winning team. 

Gilas is heading to the classification round, where they will face either New Zealand or Japan. 

China, on the other hand, heads to the semifinal round.