Gilas Under-16 dominates Kuwait in FIBA U16 Asian Championship

The Gilas Pilipinas Under-16 team took down Kuwait, 82-45, to open their campaign in the FIBA U16 Asian Championship, early Tuesday morning (Manila time) in Qatar.

It was a wire-to-wire win for the young Gilas squad who started hot in the game and ended the first quarter with a 25-9 advantage. Kuwait tried to catch up in the second quarter as they made 15 points against the Philippines' 18 to end the first half at 43-24.

The domination continued for the young Gilas guns as they limited Kuwait again to just nine points in the third quarter to end at 64-33. Gilas, who led by as much as 38 points at 82-44, eventually picked up the win.

Zain Mahmood tallied 16 points and five rebounds while Jared Bahay impressed with 12 points, eight rebounds, and six assists.

Kuwait's Adel F A H Alsaied led his squad with 12 points and nine rebounds.

The Philippines is in Group B, alongside Japan and Kuwait, in the Asian championships.

The top team from each pool at the end of the group stage will directly qualify to the quarterfinals. The next two teams, meanwhile, will need to hurdle the playoffs before making it to the quarters. In Group B, Japan annihilated Kuwait, 98-33.

The young Gilas squad will play Japan tonight at 8:45 pm.

—JMB, GMA News