Gilas Pilipinas prevailed over South Korea in their rematch at the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifers, 82-77, to complete the sweep of the Clark, Pampanga leg.
The South Korean team started out with a 9-0 run but Gilas Pilipinas had a balanced counter attack to pull within just two points heading to the second quarter.
Dwight Ramos fired a three-pointer then followed it up with a dunk from Will Navarro to give the Philippines a four-point lead at the 3:42 mark in the second period. Gilas Pilipiinas maintains a four point lead, 38-34 heading ending the first half.
At this point, Dwight Ramos leads the Philippines with 8 points, four assists and two steals while Guna RA tops all scorers with 14 points along with four rebounds.
Korea came in the third period getting more involvement from their locals and managed to tie the game at 50-all.
RJ Abarrientos drilled a three-pointer with six seconds left in the period as Gilas Pilipinas takes a two-point lead going to the final quarter.
Ramos pulls up antother three-point shot to keep the Koreans down by six with 3:44 left in game. Hongseouk Yang kept the game close hitting a three of his own as Gilas still up by three heading to the last two minutes.
Gun RA was fouled by Ramos and sank only one free throw with Korea just trailing by 2 at the 55 second mark. On the other end of the floor, Will Navarro finds Justine Baltazar with the dunk as Gilas goes up again by four.
Another made basket by Gun RA with 25 seconds left makes Gilas Pilipinas take a timeout.
Yang gave Belangel an unsportsmanlike foul and the Filipino point guard sank 1 of 2 from the free thow line to push the lead up to three.
Ramos held on to the ball and was fouled by Daesung Lee and sank both free throws to seal the victory for the Phillipines.
Ramos finished with 17 points, five assists, two rebounds and two steals. Kai Sotto tallied with 19 points, and seven rebounds while Jordan Heading and RJ Abarrientos also had 10 each.
Korea had Guna RA tallying a double-double of 20 points and 13 rebounds while Lee had 13 points and eight boards. Yan was able to chip in 12 points and three rebounds as well.
