Gilas was off to a good start as Andray Blatche, Jason Castro and Dondon Hontiveros combined with eight three-point shots in the first half of the game.
As usual Blache dominated the rebounds aside from his outside shots to keep Gilas out of reach in the first half with able assistance from his teammates.
Great execution and sustained efforts by the team prevented the Hong Kong team from executing their own game plan and limiting them to only seven points in the second quarter.
A hook shot by Sonny Thoss gave Gilas a wider lead of 29 points at 51-22 by the end of the first half.
In the second half, Blatche scored a split from a free throw on a defensive foul by Hong Kong to break the score at 52-22 as Castro sunk a three-pointer from the side to keep their lead above 30 points.
Hong Kong’s Dunkin Reid, who was unstoppable on his three-point shots, had to be sidelined for a while as he already had three fouls moving to the third quarter.
With an insurmountable lead, Gilas pulled away even more with outside shots and lay ups finding their marks. It was an easy game for Gilas in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter with the Hong Kong team looking helpless in the dying seconds of the game.
Before the start of competition in Group B, Gilas Coach Tab Baldwin stated that a win by Gilas early in the tournament will give the team a psychological advantage as they move to face the more superior teams.
“The reality is we should control those games reasonably well. Those are games where we can continue to evolve our system, refine and perfect what we’re trying to do,” Baldwin said.
“We need to be dominant of those games for our mentality and psychology,” he added.
Gilas will face Kuwait at 4:45 p.m. on Friday for its third game in Group B.
