Philippines opens tournament

with loss to Greece

By Adrian Stewart Co

The Philippine men’s national under-19 basketball team opened their 2019 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup campaign in Heraklion, Greece with an 85-69 loss to host country Greece.
The Philippine side took an early lead and pulled ahead 22-12 off inside hits from Kai Sotto; however, the hosts later tied things up at 43-all. The Greeks then went on to dominate the second half by forcing multiple turnovers from the Philippines, alongside Sotto running into foul trouble and Alfred Edu sustaining an injury.
Sotto top-scored for the Philippines with 13 points, along with contributing 10 rebounds and three blocks; while Ilonggo point guard Gerry Abadiano added 13 points and seven rebounds; and Dave Ildefonso offered up 12 points, four boards, and four assists.
For the Greek side, Nikolaos Arsenopoulos finished with 18 points and three rebounds while Aristotelis Sotiriou just missed out on a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds./ASC, WDJ