MANILA, Philippines – While Gilas Pilipinas defeated Lebanon, 107 to 96, on Friday night in the sixth round of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers, Justin Brownlee and rookie Mason Amos immediately demonstrated their potential.

In his national team debut, Brownlee, a beloved naturalized player and Barangay Ginebra import, finished with 17 points. He opened the game by making his first two three-point attempts to set the tone for the contest played in front of a sizable weekend crowd at the Philippine Arena.

The victory over Lebanon in the fourth quarter last August was avenged by the Filipinos thanks to the 34-year-old Brownlee, who also contributed four rebounds and five assists while making 2-of-3 three-pointers. Mason, too?

During the third quarter, where he scored 11 of his 13 points, the 18-year-old big man shot a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.

Brownlee and Amos’ outside shooting clearly had an impact on the team as a whole because the team as a whole shot an impressive 47% from three-point range, making 17 of their 36 attempts.

During the postgame news conference, coach Chot Reyes stated, “Clearly we’re really delighted with our offense. We shot the ball effectively. In fact, we had 31 assists on just 13 mistakes, which allowed us to shoot 17 threes.

The offensive side of the game was really strong.

Jordan Heading, Ray Parks, and Dwight Ramos each scored 10 points for the hosts, while Jamie Malonzo added 15 more.

Although the Philippines’ offense was strong, Reyes claimed that the defense still needs work.

He noted that the Filipinos nearly conceded 100 points to a Lebanon team that was playing without its star shooter Wael Arakji, as well as Ali Haidar and naturalized Jonathan Arledge, saying, “There are still a lot of things to be desired about our defense.”

As usual, Reyes remarked, “there’s always something to be thrilled about and other things to keep working on.

As Lebanon dropped to a 7 to 2 record for a tie at the top with a loss to New Zealand, the Philippines improved to 6 to 3 to hold onto third place, while Lebanon went from a tie at the top to second place.

The following day, also on Monday at the Philippine Arena, Gilas will play Jordan.

Just prior to the contest between the Philippines and Lebanon, NBA legend Carmelo Anthony personally delivered the FIBA World Cup to center court.

Together with Pau Gasol and Luis Scola, Anthony has recently joined the list of FIBA World Cup Global Ambassadors.

Scores at the end of the match:

Philippines (107)

Individual Scores: Parks 10, Heading 10, Ramos 10, Fajardo 9, K. Ravena 8, Perez 8, Thompson 5, T. Malonzo, 15, Brownlee, 17, Parks, 10, Heading, 10, Ramos, 10, Fajardo, 9, 2, 0 Ravena, and 0 Oftan

Lebanon (96)

Individual Scores: Saoud 27, Gyokchyan 21, El Darwich 19, Zeinoun 14, Khoueiry 6, Mansour 6, Hadidian 3, Kalili 0, Rabay 0, Salibi 0, Mezher 0

Scores per quarter:

25 to 19; 53 to 41; 82 to 64; and 107 to 96.