PH MAKES SEMIS IN OLYMPIC QUALIFYING TOURNAMENT

The Philippines bowed to Georgia, 94-96, on Thursday night (Manila time) but will still advance to the semifinal round in the Latvia leg of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia.

Needing to win against Georgia to claim the top spot in Group A and avoid losing more than 18 points to get axed, Gilas Pilipinas used a torrid third quarter rally to tie the count at 74-all entering the final period.

From there, the Filipinos played wisely, not allowing Georgia to pull away.

Naturalized Filipino Justin Brownlee led the Philippines with 35 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.

Chris Newsome, CJ Perez and Dwight Ramos scored 18, 17 and 16 points, respectively for Gilas Pilipinas.

Latvia, which the Philippines defeated earlier on Thursday, also made the semis with a 1-1 record.

2024-07-04T14:42:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd