ALLAN THE MAN

Philippine national men’s basketball team swingman Gabe Norwood’s dunk over Argentinean NBA player Luis Scola made the list of Top 10 Plays from the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.

A video of the Top 10 Plays was posted on the FIBA website on Sunday and Gilas Pilipinas’ high-flying Norwood clocked in at No. 3 behind monster dunks by USA big man Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Kalinic of runner-up Serbia.

Philippines win the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup MVF (Most Valuable Fan) Best Country Award. Fans took part in MVF Challenges and used a broad range of social actions (for example by associating their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram accounts, using the hashtag #Spain2014...etc) to accumulate their MVF points.

The United States romped to their fifth basketball World Cup title after overcoming an early deficit to overwhelm the tournament's surprise package Serbia 129-92 in a one-sided final on Sunday.

An athletic U.S. team, missing top NBA players such as LeBron James and Kevin Durant, finished the tournament in grand style with a 9-0 record to retain the title they won in Istanbul in 2010.

In a repeat of the 2013 European championship final, the French again got the better of the Baltic nation after versatile 25-year-old shooting guard Batum racked up 27 points in a thrilling encounter.

Klay Thompson helped the reigning world champions USA recover from a sluggish start to take a 96-68 win over Lithuania in the Semi-Finals of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and return to the Final of FIBA's flagship event for the second consecutive time.

The USA now travel to Madrid to play the winners of Friday's Semi-Final between Serbia and France in Sunday's title game at the Palacio de los Deportes.

France and Serbia created a couple of seismic shocks in the FIBA Basketball World Cup on Wednesday by knocking Brazil and tournament hosts Spain out of the tournament.

Both the French and Serbians avenged defeats in Group A to set up a Semi-Finals against each other.The thumped Spain, 65-52, while in the day's first game, Serbia routed Brazil, 84-56.

The reigning world champions USA tightened the screws in the third quarter to leave Slovenia behind and take a comfortable 119-76 win in the second Quarter-Final of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup at the Palau Sant Jordi on Tuesday. 

With the victory, Mike Krzyzewski's team moved a step closer in their quest to successfully defend their title in FIBA's flagship event.

FIBA will launch an investigation regarding allegations that Australia lost on purpose against Angola.

Team Australia allegedly tanked against Angola in their final Group D game to avoid being immediately pitted against top-seeded Team USA in the quarterfinals.

Despite the exit of Gilas Pilipinas from the FIBA World Cup, the remaining teams in the tournament continue to churn out spectacular plays. Here are the top 10 plays in the FIBA World Cup quarterfinal round. 

What began as a 24-team tournament with games being played in four Spanish cities is now an event with 16 sides in Barcelona and Madrid.

We are now closer to finding a champion in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup.The Round of 16 games will be played this weekend and the situation for all title aspirants is simple and straightforward.

Watch the Top 5 Plays of DAY 6 of 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup; including Team USA Kenneth Faried and Spain's Gasol brothers and an amazing buzzer beater.

The Philippine national men’s basketball team may already be out of contention in the FIBA Basketball World Cup, but that hasn’t stopped Gilas Pilipinas from continuing to impress.

John Schuhmann, NBA.com’s advanced statistics writer, reveals that Gilas Pilipinas has the best net rating of all the teams which have been eliminated from the World Cup.

It took more than 40 years for the Philippines, but they finally won a game at FIBA's flagship event in using their final chance at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and setting themselves up to be an inspiration for years to come back home.

Jim Alapag scored 18 points and Andray Blatche totalled 18 points and 14 rebounds as Gilas got the better of Senegal 81-79 after overtime for their first win in Sevilla's Group B. (WATCH FULL GAME REPLAY HERE) It was also their first victory at the World Championship since beating Australia 101-100 on 8 July 1974.

Barcelona certainly brings very fond memories for USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Catalan capital was the very venue way back in 1992 that the coach sat on the USA bench as an assistant to Chuck Daly who steered the Dream Teamto the Olympic gold.

Not that it was Krzyzewski's first gold medal - he had also been an assistant on the USA's gold medal winning team at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Nor was it his last – he now has back-to-back golds from the 2008 and 2012 Games to go with one for winning the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey in between. These three as the chief play caller.

Gilas Pilipinas ended their 2014 FIBA World Cup campaign on a high note, clinching their only victory in the tournament, beating Senegal, 81-79, in a thrilling overtime game.

Naturalized player Andray Blatche finished with 18 markers and 14 rebounds, while team captain Jimmy Alapag added 18 points. Their win caps a string of heartbreaks for the nationals who were defeated by Croatia, Greece, Argentina, and Puerto Rico.

WATCH Gilas Pilipinas vs Senegal FULL GAME REPLAY VIDEO BELOW:

Finally.

After a string of heartbreaking defeats, the Philippine national men’s basketball team remained poise in the endgame to survive Senegal in overtime, 81-79, to wrap up its historic FIBA Basketball World Cup campaign Thursday in Seville, Spain.

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014 Thursday, MANILA TIME:

7:30 pm - Angola vs Australia

8:00 pm - Gilas Pilipinas (Philippines) vs Senegal

9:00 pm - New Zealnd vs Finland

9:30 pm - Egypt vs Brazil

11:30 pm - South Korea vs Mexico ; USA vs Ukraine

12:00 mn - Iran vs France ; Croatia vs Puerto Rico

3:30 am - Lithuania vs Slovenia ; Turkey vs Dominican republic

4:00 am - Spain vs Serbia ; Argentina vs Greece

The Philippine national men’s basketball team has dropped four straight painful defeats in the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain, and Filipino fans, heartbroken and all, are still hoping for Gilas Pilipinas to grab that elusive win before they end the tournament.

At least, the Filipinos are not alone, as the foreign media has also thrown its support behind Gilas Pilipinas. After its close defeat to Argentina, columnist Jose Ignacio Pinilla of Spanish sports newspaper Diario AS wrote in a column that the Philippines “deserves” a win in the tournament.