MANILA — Gilas Pilipinas suffered a second straight stinging defeat as Lebanon scored a lopsided 106-87 victory in the classification phase of the 2017 Fiba Asia Cup Saturday night at Nouhad Nawfal Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon.

The loss followed Gilas’ dreadful game against Korea Thursday morning where the Filipinos got blown out by the Koreans, 118-86, in their quarterfinal knockout match.

Still reeling from that loss, the Filipinos fell into an early 19-point deficit against Lebanon Saturday and never recovered.

The defeat sent Gilas into a battle for seventh place against Jordan Monday. Even with a victory over the Jordanians, the Filipinos would suffer their worst finish in eight years in the Fiba Asia Cup.

The Philippines was the Asian tournament’s losing finalist in 2016 and 2015. The Filipinos have not finished lower than fourth place in the tourney since they finished eighth in the 2009 Fiba Asia Cup in Tianjin, China. It was a totally unexpected turn of events as Gilas showed potentials of going all the way to the championship after it swept its group assignments, scoring an upset victory against perennial rival China in its first game followed by impressive wins against Iraq and Qatar.

Gilas sorely missed the services of Fil-German Christian Standhardinger who left for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Friday to reinforce another Gilas Pilipinas team that will defend its crown in the Southeast Asian Games. That team bannered by Kiefer Ravena, Kobe Paras and Rayray Parks will face Thailand in its opening game Sunday.

Lebanese superstar Fadi El-Khatib, the leading scorer of the 2017 Fiba Asia Cup, tormented the Filipinos with 36 points as his team advanced to the battle for fifth place against China.

Lebanon’s naturalized center Norvel Pelle, who played in the NBA Summer League, dominated the paint on both ends, scoring 23 points, 13 rebounds and nine huge blocks.

Terrence Romeo led Gilas with 19 points, but most of these came in the fourth quarter when Lebanon was already leading by a mile.

Gilas was able to cut Lebanon’s lead to five, 47-42, near the end of the first half. However, like in the game against Korea, the Filipinos failed to sustain their comeback bid and got blown away in the third quarter.

So frustrated was Gilas head coach Chot Reyes that he got ejected after he vehemently protested the referees’ apparent failure to call a foul on June Mar Fajardo under the basket with the Filipinos struggling to cut down Lebanon’s 18-point lead, 86-68, with 5:23 left in the game.