By the skin of their teeth.
Gilas Pilipinas had to grind out and did just enough to escape Chinese Taipei, 89-88, in the FIBA U18 Asia Cup Thursday at the Veer Savarkar Indoor Stadium in Ahmedabad, India.
The Philippines lost a 27-point lead late, but a floater by Ethan Aguas with 2.6 seconds left saved the day for the squad.
Gilas had a strong start in the game, turning a 15-10 lead to a 31-12 edge at the end of the first quarter.
The Nationals continued to press on, leading by as much as 27 points, 60-33, in the third quarter after a 3-pointer by Andrew Chio.
Chinese Taipei, though, slowly nipped the lead away.
The squad sliced the deficit to single digit, 66-74, with 8:37 left after a Shao-en Huang deuce.
An Aguas triple connected with 6:22 left that gave Gilas an 83-68 lead.
A 15-1 run by Chinese Taipei then made it an 83-84 deficit with 3:31 remaining after an and-one play by Ting-Kuan Liu.
Jan Cagurungan and Li-an Chuang traded triples to make it a one-point affair
After a pair of stops from both ends, Carter Coleman got a transition floater with 6.6 seconds to go to push Chinese Taipei, 88-87, with 6.6 seconds to go.
Aguas then received the ball and floated one in for the win.
On the other end, Liu tried to go for the victory but he missed as time expired.
Cagurungan powered Gilas with 21 points and five rebounds. Aguas added 16 markers and 10 boards, to go with two dimes and a steal. Lino Tubongbanua Jr. and Prince Carino had 10 points apiece.
Liu powered Chinese Taipei with 23 points and six rebounds. Coleman added 22 points, while Jia-han Huang had 15 markers and nine boards.