GILAS Pilipinas Youth churned out its best performance yet in the 2019 Fiba Under-19 World Cup, whipping China, 86-72, Saturday at Heraklion University Sports Hall.

Dave Ildefonso fired 21 points on a 4-of-7 shooting from downtown, to go with seven assists, and six rebounds as the Philippines progressed to the battle for 13th place on Sunday.

Carl Tamayo also had his best outing with 20 points and six rebounds to make up for the pedestrian statline of Kai Sotto, who had five points and two boards in the win.

James Spencer and Rhayyan Amsali also scored 11 points each for the Filipinos' breakthrough win in the global youth hoops showpiece as they also got a measure of revenge from their 76-57 defeat to the Chinese in the bronze medal game of the 2018 Fiba Under-18 Asian Championship in Thailand.

Gilas Youth will now await its date between the winner of New Zealand and Senegal later in the day.

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The Philippines used a 31-point third quarter to sink its continental rivals, 72-57 entering the fourth quarter. The lead further swelled to 18, 77-61, with an Ildefonso trey with 2:49 to play.

Guo Haowen led China with 23 points, five assists, four rebounds, and four steals in the losing cause in the penultimate day of competitions in Greece.

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The Scores:

PHILIPPINES 86 -- Ildefonso 21, Tamayo 20, Spencer 11, Amsali 11, Panopio 8, Abadiano 6, Sotto 5, Chiu 2, Fortea 2, Oczon 0.

CHINA 72 -- Guo 23, Jiang H 16, Xu J 11, Shi 6, Wang 5, Ji 4, Jiao 4, Jiang W 3, Xu K 0.

Quarters: 21-18, 41-37, 72-57, 86-72.