GILAS Pilipinas is now halfway through towards accomplishing its Hanoi mission.
It's three down and three to go for coach Chot Reyes and his crew as they got going and breezed past Singapore, 88-37, Wednesday night in the 31st SEA Games men's basketball tournament at the Thanh Tri Gymnasium in the Vietnam capital.
Though throwing bricks early on, the Nationals found it easy to break away, taking the half at 43-15 and roaring on to post another ghastly rout after a 100-32 waylaying of Cambodia a night before.
It was a breeze. And if there's any scare that the Nationals and the Philippine crowd felt, it was when Lebron Lopez lost his balance and fell down hard on the floor from a thunderous dunk in the third quarter.
Chemistry, camaraderie and fluidity were obviously better in their third outing.
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June Mar Fajardo and his teammates bring it on the floor in the last half of their six-game grind in the Hanoi meet, starting against the home team Thursday.
They then take a breather before resuming their campaign versus Malaysia Saturday and Indonesia Sunday.
Vietnam and Indonesia both boast of foreign recruits playing under foreign coaches. The Vietnamese are handled by American Kevin Yurkus while the Indonesians have the duo of Serbians Rajko Toroman and Milos Pejic on the saddle.
The Filipinos braced for their last three assignments with a 76-73 decision over the Thais then back-to-back virtual no-contests against the Cambodians and the Singaporeans.
Lopez rose from his fall, returned to make a few more jams and finished with 18 markers for Team Phl paced by RR Pogoy with 18.
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The Filipinos shot badly at the start but defended well, holding the Singaporeans to three points (all on foul shots) in the first nine minutes of the lopsided match.
In Manila in 2019, Gilas blasted Singapore, 110-58. (SB)
