Belangel banks winner at the horn as Gilas squeak past South Korea to punch FIBA Asia Cup ticket

The Philippines needed a last-second miracle to clinch their spot in the FIBA Asia Cup in Indonesia after escaping the Angeles University Foundation gym with nail-biting 81-78 comeback win over eternal enemies South Korea to open their campaign in the third and final qualifying window Wednesday evening.

Tab Baldwin and his Ateneo-led cadets made a masterful work in showing their fighting heart in full display, clawing back from seventeen points down early in the first half to win their fourth straight game in Group A, and punched their ticket to Jakarta in August in the process while ending an eight-year drought against their East Asian archrivals.

On his first-ever game as a full Philippines international, point guard SJ Belangel drilled the clutch three-pointer that banked in at the final buzzer to become Gilas' new hero, with the Blue Eagle sophomore wrapping up the game with 13 points on a 5/9 clip from the field.

Guard Dwight Ramos led the Filipinos' balanced attack with 16 markers as he and Belangel were joined by three others in double figures, as debutantes Angelo Kouame and Kai Sotto had twelve and eleven respectively while holding fort opposite former PBA import Ricardo Ratliffe (Ra Gun-ah).

Ratliffe led all scorers with 24 points as South Korea were set to deliver another heartbreak when a Seonghyen Jeon triple gave them the biggest lead at 33-16 with 6:39 remaining in the second.

Forward Hyunjung Lee had 15 to help the former Mizzou big man, but it was not enough to avoid their first defeat in the qualifiers.

However, Gilas responded in a huge way afterwards and were able to turn it around, claiming their first taste of the lead in the third on an Isaac Go lay-up before heading into the payoff period only trailing by a solitary point.

From then on, it was a dogfight between the storied rivals as they trade shots and leads in the final canto, with South Korea having their 9-0 run to lead by five evaporated when Gilas punched in an 8-0 counter to take the lead for good.

But Kouame missed the first crack to the take the game out of the Korean's reach when he missed his bonus free throw, setting up an equalizing trey by the Davidson Wildcat with 2.9 remaining.

And after burning their final two timeouts, Baldwin drew the final play into near-perfection, as Belangel took Ramos' inbound pass, walked the tightrope in the sidelines and pump-faked over Seounghyun Lee to fire the off-balanced triple that hit the glass and into the bottom of the net as time expired, sparking wild celebrations as they clinched their 28th appearance at the continental championships.

The scores:

PHILIPPINES 81 -- Ramos 16, Belangel 13, Kouame 12, Sotto 11, Tamayo 10, Baltazar 6, Abarrientos 6, Go 4, Nieto 3, Navarro 0, Tungcab 0

SOUTH KOREA 78 -- Ratcliffe 24, HJ Lee 15, SH Lee 9, Jeon 9, Kang 7, Moon 6, Yang 4, Kim 2, DS Lee 2, Byeon 0

QUARTER SCORES: 12-21, 36-44, 56-57, 81-78
PHOTOS: FIBA