MANILA, Philippines -- Young center Kai Sotto shook off a slow start and a first-half benching to emerge as the top scorer for Gilas Pilipinas in their big win over Jordan, Thursday in their FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifier in Amman.

He finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks in 24 minutes as the Philippines claimed a 74-66 triumph to improve to 4-3 in Pool E.

More than the numbers that Sotto delivered, Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes was pleased at their center's display of maturity after a tough start to the game.

• GAME RECAP: Sotto, in-form Gilas down Jordan

"Kai could have just gone into a funk and just lost interest in the second half," Reyes said of Sotto, who was yanked out in the first half after struggling against Jordan's Ahmad Al Dwairi.

"But to his credit, he came out and we shifted the match ups a little bit and Kai dominated. He got four or five defensive rebounds and then he scored, and was a presence on defense," the coach added. "That's what we need from him."

"I had a talk with him after the game and that's exactly what we discussed."

Sotto was at his best in the third quarter, where Gilas out-scored Jordan 21-10 to take control of the game after a nervy opening half.

According to Reyes, it helped that they had multi-titled mentor Tim Cone on the bench to give Sotto a pep talk as well as instructions on how he can make up for his early blunders.

"That's the value of having good assistants, when we took Kai off the game. I specifically told Coach Tim to talk to him, to be able to tell exactly why he was being taken out and what we're looking for from him," said Reyes.

"When we reinserted him and then he had that turnover again, we took him out again just to be able to deliver that point," he added.

Sotto, for his part, was simply thrilled to have contributed in a morale-boosting win for the national team.

"No one really cared who scored," said Sotto. "That turned out to be a good game. I'm happy we got the win."

Aside from Sotto, Ray Parks (13) and CJ Perez (11) also reached double-digits in scoring while Scottie Thompson did a little bit of everything with eight points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists in 28 minutes.

Gilas returns to action on Sunday against Saudi Arabia (Monday in Manila).