Gilas Boys finish 8th in FIBA U18 Asia Cup

Sports

A THIRD straight loss capped Gilas Pilipinas Boys’ campaign in the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2026, bowing to Chinese Taipei, 78–89, on Sunday, Aug. 23, at the Veer Savarkar Indoor Stadium in Ahmedabad, India.

Gilas ended its campaign with three wins and four losses. One of the defeats came in the quarterfinal round where the Nationals lost to China that quashed its hopes of making it to the FIBA U19 World Cup 2027.

Gilas looked good early when it led by as many as 12 points in the second quarter. Chinese-Taipei staged a critical run, racking up 16 unanswered points to post a 42-34 lead at the half.

Chinese-Taipei built its own double-digit cushion, 83-69, late in the fourth quarter as Gilas couldn’t recover the rest of the way.

Chog Moral paced Gilas with 22 points and nine rebounds. Ethan Aguas threw in 15 points and seven rebounds while Bruce Tubongbanua added 10 points.

Chinese Taipei ended up seventh with three victories and four deficits while also avenging its 88-89 loss to Gilas in the group phase.

THE SCORES:

CHINESE-TAIPEI (89) – Coleman 23, Xing 17, Liu 13, Weng 11, Huang 9, Chen 9, Chuang 5, Jhou 2, Yang 0.

PHILIPPINES (78) – Moral 22, Aguas 15, Tubongbanua 10, Dayco-Green 8, Cagurungan 5, Atacador 5, Pasinos 4, Carino 4, Chio 2, Roquid 2, Lacson 1, Gish 0.QUARTERSCORES: 20-22, 49-41, 72-60, 89-78.(CCM)