Philippines beat U.A.E. in their first game of the Olympic Qualifier

Philippines had only 10 players cleared to play on their roster, but all of them played for at least 10 minutes and all of them scored as the SEABA champions raced off to a 92-52 win against United Arab Emirates in Group D on Thursday.

“I think we showed a lot of character to win today,” said Philippines coach Rajko Toroman.

Marnel Baraceal (pic above) scored 15 points to lead the Filipino scoring which had three more scoring in the double digits.

Asi Taulaval, a long standing PBA import in the Philippine NT, had a double double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

“This game warmed us up well for tomorrow,” said Toroman speaking of the game against China.

“I hope we can go at them full strength. But we will not give up without a proper fight,” he added.

UAE coach Zoran Zupcevic was rather nonchalant about the defeat.

“We lost to a very good team. There’s no doubt on that,” he added.

Hussain Ahmed’s dozen was the highest for the Emirians.