The Philippines unleashed another third-quarter storm and smothered Thailand, 115-81, to extend its basketball reign in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games on Tuesday at SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Similar to its semifinal tussle with Indonesia on Monday, the all-pro squad Gilas Pilipinas allowed the Thais to stay within sight at halftime, 48-39.
But after their dugout huddle with Head Coach Tim Cone, the Nationals went on a rampage again.
Outscoring the Thais, 40-15, including an avalanche of 17 points, the Nationals surged ahead, 88-54, and cruised to their 14th straight title and 18th overall.
The Nationals poured 39 points against the Indonesians in the same period and proceeded to tally a 97-70 victory.
June Mar Fajardo, the five-time PBA MVP, frolicked inside the paint to score 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, followed by Christian Standhardinger with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Veteran LA Tenorio also scored 14 points aside from orchestrating the plays with Kiefer Ravena, who contributed 10 points in his fifth straight SEA Games gold.
Sharpshooter Matthew Wright and hard worker Vic Manuel added 14 each, while Stanley Pringle chipped in 13 for the Philippines, which yielded the cage title only twice, in 1979 and 1989, both to Malaysia.
Though he’s the PBA’s winningest coach with 21 titles, including two Grand Slams, Cone still considers the SEAG triumph as special.
“I’ve won a few championships in the PBA, but this is on top,” said Cone, who steered the PBA-backed Centennial Team to the bronze in the 1998 Asian Games in Thailand.
As expected, Gilas outplayed Thailand in all aspects, despite the 33-point effort of Thai-American Tyler Lamb.
Gilas shot better, 45 of 88 against the Thais’ 29 of 73; ruled the boards, 54-36; had more steals, 12-5; and played more cohesively with 29 assists against the Thais’ 14.
Flaunting its depth, Gilas drew 61 points from the bench against only 22 for the Thais.
Simply put, the gold was reserved for Gilas.
In the other game, Vietnam trounced Indonesia, 86-71, to win the bronze, its first-ever podium finish in men’s basketball.