Gilas Pilipinas remained spotless in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers after a dominant 93-54 victory over winless Hong Kong on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
With the win, Gilas secured its ticket to the regional championship scheduled in August in Saudi Arabia, with only the final seeding yet to be determined.
Earlier in the week, Gilas upset the New Zealand Tall Blacks, improving their Group B record to 3-0 before finishing the window with a perfect 4-0 win-loss card.
Hong Kong was competitive in the first half, even briefly taking the lead. However, Gilas pulled ahead to a 45-35 halftime lead, and by the third quarter, the advantage had ballooned to 67-43, despite a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Oliver Xu.
Carl Tamayo led all scorers with 16 points and 7 rebounds, capitalizing on extended playing time from head coach Tim Cone. Gilas’ bench players contributed a total of 46 points, compared to just 15 from Hong Kong’s reserves.
“It’s a little bit bothersome that we’re allowing that many three-point shots,” Cone told the post-game news conference.
“But I thought also offensively, we moved the ball a lot better in the second half. I think we had only 9 assists in the first half, then we had 15 in the second. When the ball moves, I think everybody feels like they’re involved, and it carries over to the defensive side as well, and we started defending better,” he added.
Gilas dominated in the paint, outrebounding Hong Kong 56-34, with 7-foot-3 Kai Sotto pulling down 15 boards to go with 12 points and 2 assists.Hong Kong’s Shiu Wa Leung led his team with 11 points, while Yiu Pong Yip added 4 points and 8 rebounds.
Gilas will complete its qualifying campaign with two more away games against New Zealand and Chinese Taipei in February before the FIBA Asia Cup in August. A clean sweep of the qualifiers would ensure Gilas a top seed, helping them avoid stronger teams like Australia in the early stages of the Asia Cup championships.
