Gilas Pilipinas vs. Lebanon: Score, Reaction from 2015 FIBA Asia Championships

While it wasn't the walk in the park many expected, Gilas Pilipinas took care of business Thursday against Lebanon in the FIBA Asia Championship quarterfinals and advanced to the semis by virtue of an 82-70 victory in Changsha, China.

The Philippines has relied on a total team effort throughout much of the tournament thus far, but Thursday's contest was essentially dominated by two players, as Jayson Castro and former NBA center Andray Blatche carried the load.

Castro led all scorers with 25 points, while Blatche dominated in the paint to the tune of 24 points, 17 rebounds and two blocks.

As seen in this video courtesy of FIBA's official YouTube page, Castro took over the game at times, and Lebanon simply didn't have an answer:

Gilas never seemed to be in danger since they led for nearly the entire game, but they never truly pulled away from what looked to be an overmatched team on paper like China did against India earlier in the day. Even so, the Philippines was consistently better throughout, outscoring Lebanon in every quarter.

Castro set the tone in the first quarter, as he scored 12 of Gilas Pilipinas' 20 points and helped them secure a four-point lead after the opening frame. That advantage continued to grow slowly but surely throughout the contest, which is how the 12-point margin came to be.

Although the Philippines' point total of 82 looks great in the boxscore, it shot only 42.7 percent from the field, due largely to the fact that Lebanon threw a number of different defensive looks at it, according to former Gilas head coach Chot Reyes:

Gilas Pilipinas were able to deal with it primarily because of Castro and Blatche, as they scored well over half of the team's points. Lebanon spread the wealth a bit more effectively, with five players scoring at least eight points—including Mohamad Ali Haidar's 18—but it was nowhere near enough.

The Philippines tends to have fantastic crowd support wherever it goes; however, it found itself in an uncommon situation Thursday.

Since the Chinese fans know that Gilas are among the biggest threats remaining in the tournament, they created a somewhat difficult environment for the Philippines, per TJ Manotoc of ABS-CBN:

Despite the fact that the fans were pulling primarily for Lebanon, Gilas Pilipinas pressed on and certainly didn't seem to allow the atmosphere to adversely impact them.

The Philippines has expertly blocked out distractions throughout the FIBA Asia Championship, thanks in large part to the demeanor of head coach Tab Baldwin.

Lebanese head coach Veselin Metic attempted to play the underdog card leading up to Thursday's clash, but Baldwin dismissed it and focused on the task at hand, according to ABS-CBN:

"

Coaches who say anything to the media about other teams that is not complimentary are trying to play head games or not very smart, one or the other. I know Metic, and he's not a dumb guy. He's been around a long time. So he's just playing head games in the media and with the fans, because the players don't listen. They have no interest in what the other coaches are saying.

"

Baldwin's mindset paid big dividends, as Gilas never allowed Lebanon to go on a big run or seize the lead, despite the fact that it was able to hang in there for most of the game.

Now that Lebanon has been dispatched, the Philippines' attention shifts toward its semifinal opponent in the form of Japan.

The upstart Japanese team advanced to the semis for the first time since 1997 by beating Qatar 81-67, and it is talented enough to potentially pull off an upset against Gilas.

Since the Philippines is well past the shocking tournament-opening loss to Palestine and back in fine form, though, it is undoubtedly favored to advance to the final and face either China or Iran for a chance to take part in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.