Qatar’s win over Chinese Taipei plus PH victory vs Hong Kong give Nationals top spot in Group E

The Gilas Pilipinas earned the top seed in Group E heading to the all-important quarterfinal stage after outlasting a pesky Hong Kong side, 67-55, at the end of the preliminaries of the 27th FIBA Asia Men’s Championship last night at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Gilas has Qatar to thank for its current standing after the latter handed Chinese Taipei its first defeat of the tournament, 71-68, to forge a three-way tie at the top.
The Philippines, Qatar and Chinese Taipei all finished with the same record of 5-1 (win-loss). However, the Nationals managed to snag the top seed in their group going to the quarterfinals by virtue of their higher quotient (+5) while Chinese Taipei (+2) got the second seed and Qatar (-7), the third seed.
The Gilas came out flat and were in pursuit of Hong Kong nearly all game long. They were down by 10 at several points of the match, the last at 17-27, in the second period.
Fortunately, the Nationals were able to find their rhythm and finally imposed their will upon their opponents late in the third canto behind consecutive three-point plays by LA Tenorio.
Larry Fonacier capped off that stretch by beating the buzzer with a tough layup.
Hong Kong though, did not go down easily as it remained within striking distance, 54-58, after a long three-pointer by Siu Wing Chan.
The Gilas iced the game after Gabe Norwood canned a midrange jumper followed by a steal and a three-point play off a steal. Jayson Castro punctuated the barrage with another transition layup for a 65-54 lead with 1:45 remaining.
Naturalized player Marcus Douthit led four players in double-figures for the Gilas with 13 points, in spite playing with an injured leg.
Jeff Chan added 12 while Castro and Norwood finished with 11 apiece with the latter grabbing 10 rebounds for good measure.
Chan paced Hong Kong with 16 while Duncan Reid had 12 points and 19 boards.