The Gilas Pilipinas national team will clash with Qatar on Friday for its first quarterfinal round assignment in the Asian Games.

 

Gilas is in Group H with Qatar, South Korea, and Kazakhstan for the quarterfinals. The Philippines finished the preliminaries with a 1-1 card, losing to 68-63 to Asian powerhouse Iran on Thursday after defeating South Asian champions India, 85-76, on Tuesday.

 

Qatar won both of its games in Group F to advance to the quarters, beating Kuwait with convincingly, 79-69, before escaping Japan, 72-71.

 

The Philippines-Qatar match-up will be held at 5:30 p.m. Manila time.

 

Gilas will exchange hostilities with Asian rival South Korea at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Kazakhstan at 2:15 p.m. on Sunday.

 

Meanwhile, reigning FIBA Asia champions Iran is grouped with China, Mongolia, and Japan in Group G.

 

Only the top two teams per group will advance to the semifinals. — JST, GMA News