SEABA: In show of utter dominance, Gilas beats Myanmar by 107

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATED) Firing a warning shot to the rest of its rivals in the region, Gilas Pilipinas easily demolished minnow Myanmar, 147-40, in the two teams' first game in the Southeast Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) Championship on Friday in front of a partisan crowd at Araneta Coliseum.

The men's national basketball team was mostly unbothered by a Myanmar team that is unranked by FIBA, never trailing in the contest and steadily building its lead all throughout the game.

"I know there was a lot of things, a lot of talk about this game and around this campaign," Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes said. "But in our pregame, we just talked about not needing to worry about the extraneous things that are going on, and focus on what we needed to do to get the job done."

"The only thing that we were really concerned about in this ball game was our hustle numbers. That was our only focused," he added.

Gilas Pilipinas joined Indonesia and Thailand in the win column on the tournament's first day, and will play Singapore on Saturday.

Myanmar had little chance of pulling off an upset, but the hosts made things interesting early with some sloppy play. However, after Jayson Castro poached the ball off a Myanmar player and went all the way for an uncontested lay-up, Gilas Pilipinas was off to the races.

What followed was a flurry of baskets from the hosts, with Roger Pogoy unloading three three-pointers. Gilas seized a 17-0 lead at the 6:20 mark, before Myanmar finally got on the board via a lay-up from Thu Tun Tun Sei with 5:55 left.

The highlights were few and far between for Myanmar, however, as the Philippines simply imposed its will on the visitors.

Bench troopers Calvin Abueva, Jio Jalalon, Terrence Romeo, Troy Rosario and Matthew Wright piled on the Burmese players' woes by repeatedly scoring in transition.

The Filipinos took a 66-12 lead at the half, and continued to keep rolling in the third quarter. So dominant was Gilas Pilipinas that the crowd at the Big Dome started to cheer for Myanmar, particularly when Aung Myat Phyo knocked down back-to-back triples in the third quarter to make it an 88-20 game.

By the fourth quarter, the only drama left was whether or not the Philippines would be able to hike its lead up to 100 points.

After repeatedly punishing Myanmar in transition early on, Gilas Pilipinas waxed hot from beyond the arc, with Wright knocking down back-to-back triples to open the fourth quarter and Allein Maliksi firing one of his own.

The Philippines seized a 100-point lead, 140-40, with 2:56 left, off a lay-up by Pogoy that drew the loudest cheers from the crowd on the night.

For Reyes, Gilas Pilipinas' performance against Myanmar was an answer to a question that he had posed to the team ahead of the game.

"We told the players that a lot of times in international competition, tayo ang dehado," he said. "It's very rare we come to a game na tayo ang lyamado. So, could we play with the same kind of intensity and effort even if you are the favored team?"

"I think that was the question we posed before the players before the game. As far as we're concerned, we just want to make sure that we are coming out and playing the game the right way," he added.

The statistics paint a picture of how dominant Gilas was. Nine of the 12 players finished in double digits, with Abueva scoring 22 points on 10-of-15 shooting, and Maliksi adding 20 points.

Jalalon had a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists in the contest.

Gilas shot a spectacular 60% from the field, and made 50 of its 60 attempts inside the paint against the smaller Burmese. The Filipinos had 25 steals in the game, and scored 54 points off Myanmar's total 38 turnovers.

As a team, Myanmar only made 15 of its 71 attempts from the field. Wana Aung led the Burmese with 12 points. They return to action on Sunday against Vietnam.

Reyes, meanwhile, expects to have a more difficult time on Saturday against a Singapore team that is raring to bounce back from a poor performance against Indonesia.

"We don't expect this kind of result at all," he said. "We expect to encounter a lot stiffer and a lot tougher competition."

The scores:

PHILIPPINES 147 – Abueva 22, Maliksi 20, Pogoy 17, Fajardo 14, Jalalon 13, Rosario 13, Wright 12, Aguilar 11, Blatche 11, Romeo 6, Almazan 6, Castro 2.

MYANMAR 40 – Wana 12, Aung M. P. 8, Zaya 6, Aung P. W. 3, Tin 3, Sai 2, Thant 2, Sei 2, Kaung 2, Wai 0, Thein T. O. 0, Thein H. 0.

Quarters: 32-7; 66-12; 110-29; 147-40.

(For more sports coverage, visit the ABS-CBN Sports website.)