The Philippine men’s basketball team won its first game in the quarterfinals, but it was a nightmarish win as they bowed out of contention with an inferior quotient, placing them at dead last in Group H with a 1-3 record.

Gilas Pilipinas once again blew a 16-point lead only to win by two points against Kazakhstan, 67-65, at the Hwaesong Sports Complex in Incheon Sunday.

Up by 55-39 at the start of the fourth quarter in what seemed to be a total domination of the Kazakhs from start to finish, the Philippines went scoreless in the last two minutes while the Kazakhs launched a 9-0 run off a hook shot from Dmitriy Gavrilov and a running drive from Anatoly Kolesnikov.

Gilas failed to make baskets in the exchange as naturalized center Marcus Douthit muffed a point blank pick-and-roll layup while Jeff Chan missed a corner trey.

The Kazakhs then crawled back to put the score at 65-67 with five made free throws.

Douthit even tried to tie the game with 11.4 seconds left by shooting at Kazakhstan’s basket to hope for an overtime wherein Gilas could re-erect the required eleven point lead, which is the only way for them to advance in the semifinals.

In fact, it was an 11-points lead for the Filipinos, 67-56, coming into the last two minutes but the Kazakhs were relentless in attacking the shaded lane even at the presence of the much taller Douthit to launch their foiled comeback.

Douthit, who was benched in Gilas’ loss versus South Korea, led the Philippines with 18 points and 14 rebounds while the Philippines’ top scorer Jimmy Alapag added 11 points.

Pavel Ilin led the way for Kazakhstan with 21 points, five rebounds, and four assists.

The Kazakhs are poised to enter the semifinals if Qatar loses to South Korea later tonight after they romped the West Asian team, 65-57, Saturday.

However, a Qatari upset of South Korea will bring them to the semifinals and will even place them at the top spot.

In the other quarterfinals pool, Iran and Japan have advanced to the semifinals.