JORDAN A relegated Gilas Pilipinas to the consolation round of the King Abdullah Cup as it repeated over the Filipinos, 84-74, in their semifinal showdown at the Prince Hamza Hall in Amman early Sunday morning.
The host team jumped the gun on Gilas early on before thwarting one rally after the other by the visitors to book the win and advance in the championship round of the five-nation tournament.
Gilas also lost to Jordan, 84-72, at the end of the preliminary round.
Jordan faces Egypt in the winner-take-all championship.
The loss reduced Gilas in the battle for third against Tunisia, which it beat the hard way earlier following a 74-73 win in overtime.
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Its outside shooting again abandoned the national team as it only converted 25 percent of their attempts from deep on 7-of-28 shooting.
The Filipinos fell behind 26-11 late in the first period as Jordan totally took over the game.
Gilas trailed by as many as 15 and could only get to as close as 72-68 on an Ange Kouame conversion with four minutes left.
But Jordan went on a short but telling 7-2 run behind Cameron Forte, Sami Bzai, and Ahmad Al Dwairi to stretch the lead to 79-70 inside the final two minutes that took the fight out of the Filipinos.
Ange Kouame was the lone Gilas player to finish in double figures with 20 points and added six rebounds as he made up for his woeful shooting against the same team during their first meeting.
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Top special Gilas draftee for 2020 Jordan Heading fired 3-of-7 from beyond the arc to finish with nine points, while Thirdy Ravena and Dave Ildefonso added eight apiece.
Al Dwairi and Forte both led the host team with 19 points. (RG)
