By Justine Juyad

Gilas Pilipinas youth failed to book a slot in the World cup as they suffered elimination with a 99-83 loss to Lebanon in the 2022 FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship quarterfinals on Wednesday, August 24, 2022.

Photo Courtesy of FIBA Asia

With only top four going to the big stage, Gilas will miss their second straight FIBA U19 World Cup as they lost their fourth game in four days after sweeping the group stage against Syria, Qatar and Chinese Taipei.

Their main guy, Mason Amos, who was leading the tournament in scoring with his 24.4 points per outing, was only limited to 11 points, 7 rebounds, and two assists, making it difficult for Gilas to fire back against a hot-shooting opponent.

The Gilas youth had a nightmare start as they only shot 11-of-35 in the first half while Lebanon already draining threes early that led to a lopsided half, 35-53.

The young Filipinos opened the second half aggressively as they trimmed the gap to 13, 44-57, but the young Lebanese squad kept the fire burning and responded with a 8-0 run to stretch the lead to 21.

Lebanon's splash party continued and extended their lead to as much as 37 but Gilas never gave up finding the basket and even managed to cut the lead to less than 20, however their late effort wasn't enough to flip the momentum until the final buzzer.

Bryan Mansour topped all scorers with his 28 points with 18 coming from beyond the arc while Karim Rtail collected 25 points, six rebounds, and four assists to lead Lebanon to the World Cup.

Kyle Gamber, the only player in Gilas who had double digits except Amos finished with 10 points, three rebounds, and four assists in a losing effort.

Gilas youth will go up next against Chinese Taipei again in the classification phase on Friday.