Gilas Pilipinas Youth narrowly escapes Indonesia to break through in FIBA U16 Asia Cup

Luisito Pascual and Prince Cariño connived in the endgame to power Gilas Pilipinas Youth to a 65-60 win against Indonesia in the 2025 FIBA U16 Asia Cup on Monday at the MBank Arena in Mongolia. 

Cariño sank a pair of free throws before Pascual knocked down a booming corner triple off a bounce pass from Travis Pascual as they turned a slim 58-57 lead to a 63-57 cushion with 35 seconds left in the game. 

Galih Putra Kharisma then completed a three-point play to cut the deficit to three in the final 14.8 seconds, 63-60.

Indonesia nearly found a lifeline after Ethan Tan-Chi missed a pair of free throws, but Cariño grabbed the offensive rebound and sank the putback to seal the win for the Philippines.

Tan-Chi top-scored with 12 points together with five rebounds, one assist, and one steal while Pascual added 11 points, five assists, and a steal as Gilas bounced back from a 106-82 loss to Chinese Taipei. 

Andwele Cabañero chimed in with 10 markers, five boards, and four steals and Cariño contributed six markers, six rebounds, three blocks, and one dime.

The wards of head coach LA Tenorio improved to 1-1 in Group B while the Indonesians fell to a 0-2 card. 

Up next for Gilas Youth is the undefeated New Zealand (2-0) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

The best-ranked team in each group will have an outright spot in the quarterfinals while the second and third seed teams will duke it out in the qualification to quarterfinals. 

The four semifinalists, meanwhile, will qualify to the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup in Istanbul, Turkey next year.

The scores:
Gilas Pilipinas 65 - Tan-Chi 12, L. Pascual 11, Cabanero 10, Lumagub 9, Cariño 6, T. Pascual 5, Hallare 4, Orca 4, Restificar 2, Cruz 1, Antolin 1, De Los Reyes 0.

Indonesia 60 - Firdaus 13, Christiano 13, Hernusi 8, Sebastian 7, Al Hadi 6, Naranatha 3, Yabe 3, Gilbert 2, Sasongko 0.

Quarters: 17-20, 36-30, 51-48, 65-60. 

—JMB, GMA Integrated News