Gilas still searching for first win in FIBA U19

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas youth squad’s drought seemed to be endless as it suffered another blowout loss, this time at the hands of Australia, 82-60, in the 9th-16th classification round of the FIBA U19 World Cup Friday night at the Heraklion University Hall in Greece.

The one-sided loss kept the Nationals winless in five games in the world youth championships after also being blanked in the group play with losses against home team Greece, Argentina and Russia. The other day, the Philippine youth squad formally got booted out of contention following also an 87-60 loss to powerhouse Serbia in the Round of 16.

With this, Gilas youth now could salvage the highest possible finish of 13th place with another classification duel against Asian rival China which was happening as of press time (late Saturday night).

The last Philippine youth squad to participate in the World Youth basketball joust, led by PBA legend Hector Calma, took home a 10th place finish in the 1979 Brazil meet.

Deeply hurt by the absence of 6-foot-11 Fil-Nigerian AJ Edu since the opener due to an ACL and meniscus tear on his right knee, the 30th-ranked Filipino teens just could not get over the hump, succumbing to a 0-11 start against the Boomers, who are the 11th best youth squad in the world rankings.

The Philippines never recovered from that poor start as Australia went on to stretch the gap to as many as 25 points en route to a convincing win.