NEW Zealand proved too much for Gilas Pilipinas Boys as the Tall Blacks carved out a lopsided 85-54 win in Group B of the FIBA U16 Asia Cup on Tuesday, September 2, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The dominant win enabled New Zealand to sweep the group stage competition, advancing to the quarterfinal round outright after topping Group B with a clean 3-0 (win-loss) card.

Gilas, on the other hand, absorbed its second blowout loss and finished with a 1-2 slate in Group B. The Nationals also lost badly to Chinese Taipie, 82-106, before barging into the column with a tight 65-60 win over Indonesia.

To make it to the next round, Gilas will have to overcome Bahrain in the qualification for the quarterfinals. Bahrain wound up as the second seed in Group A after collecting two wins against one loss.

The Gilas-Bahrain match will be played on Thursday, September 4, with the winner facing powerhouse China in the quarterfinals.

Against New Zealand, Gilas got 13 points from Jhustin Hallare and 11 markers from Mark Jhello Lumagub.

New Zealand was led by Liam Anthony Keogh and Lawson Pryor with the former tallying 17 points and seven assists and the latter piling up 15 points and six rebounds.

New Zealand had three other players scoring in double figures while Gilas failed to get its offense going after shooting just 6-of-33 from three-point area.(CCM)

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