MANILA (UPDATED) -- Gilas Pilipinas vented its ire on China, mounting a massive third quarter barrage to finally score a 96-75 win and avert a shutout in the FIBA World Cup at the Araneta Coliseum on Saturday.

Jordan Clarkson exploded for 34 points, spiked by five three-point shots, in their final game in the classification phase while boosting the Filipinos' chances of making the cut for an Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Gilas ended its FIBA World Cup campaign with a 1-4 record.

Roger Pogoy and Dwight Ramos knocked down treys to piece together a 10-2 run for Gilas, but Rui Zhao and Zhenlin Zhang rallied China and cut the deficit to a single point.

China got the lead after five straight points from Zhang, 10-14, then Clarkson and Kai Sotto responded to tie the count 16-all.

Rhenz Abando then instigated the offense for the nationals in the second quarter, scoring on a triple followed by a dunk for a 26-20 advantage. But Zhenlin Zhang and Kaier Li fought back to give China a 40-39 margin at the half.

It was a back-and-forth affair for both squads in the third quarter until Gilas rolled out a massive that had China reeling, 59-48. It was at this point that Clarkson waxed hot from the three-point area, knocking down four straight triples to give Gilas a 70-50 headway.

Scottie Thompson and Edu instigated another run for Gilas, this time an 8-3 exchange in the fourth quarter to give the nationals their biggest lead in the game, 85-60.

Kai Sotto finished with 12 points and six rebounds for Gilas, which also got 14 markers from Abando. Ramos, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday, added 11.

Li, more familiar to NBA fans as Kyle Anderson, ended up with 17 markers for China. Hu and Zhao added 12 points each.

"We just asked the players today to play with joy in their hearts and to dig deep," said Gilas coach Chot Reyes.

"We just had two words, dig deep. And that's what the players did. Playing for nothing but pride, but we wanted to gift the Filipino people with something to end our World Cup, and the players did it."

Clarkson, for his part, was relieved with his team's performance.

"My teammates found me in transition, getting some open shots. I feel like this whole World Cup I really haven't been able to get free and get into a super crazy rhythm just because how defenses were playing and stuff like that," he said.

"But I just continued to stay with it. My teammates found me, got me open, I just made shots. It was great."

After a promising start, losing only by 87-81 to Dominican Republic, Gilas suffered stinging losses against Angola (80-70) and Italy (90-83) in the group stage. The nationals then absorbed their worst beating against South Sudan, 87-68, and crashed out of the race for an Olympic berth.

But with the victory, Gilas avoided going winless at a World Cup, following the Philippines in 1978 and Columbia in 1982.

China, on the other hand, was coming off an 83-76 win over Angola after losing all three games in the group stage.

For more stories on the FIBA World Cup, click here.

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