FIBA: South Sudan defeats Gilas Pilipinas, dashes Olympic aspirations.

South Sudan defeated Gilas Pilipinas 87-68 in their matchup on Thursday during the classification round of the FIBA World Cup at the Araneta Coliseum thanks to a dominating first quarter.

Gilas suffered their fourth straight World Cup loss, eliminating them from contention for the top Olympic spot, which will go to the highest-ranked Asian team.

With their superior quickness, South Sudan caught the Filipinos off guard and quickly established a 16-3 lead early in the first quarter. The Sudanese took a 34-17 lead going into the second canto, but AJ Edu started a surge for the national team and narrowed the score to 24-15.

Dwight Ramos and Jamie Malonzo took over the scoring honours as the nationals regained their footing in the second period. Malonzo, though, took a hard fall, and Majok Deng pushed the action to give South Sudan a 51-33 advantage.

Ramos started the third quarter on fire, scoring eight straight points (two treys, a jumper) to bring the nationals within 51-41. Even though the Sudanese continued to lead by 10 points, Gilas was able to impede their offence.

Kai Sotto’s slam, which reduced the score to 60-56, capped a 6-0 run for Gilas to start the payoff session. Midway through the half, the Sudanese maintained their lead of 69-61 by turning to Carlik Jones despite additional baskets by Clarkson and Ramos.