More than the bragging rights of sweeping the group stage, an outright quarterfinals berth is at stake in what is seen to be an epic collision between two of the continent’s powerhouses.

Expect nothing but a grindout affair as Gilas Pilipinas takes on perennial contender and longtime rival Jordan in both team’s final assignments in the pool play of the men’s basketball tournament in the 19th Asian Games at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium.

Tip-off of the crucial tiff is at 5:30 p.m. with the Nationals looking to take the easier route in the knockout stage by finishing atop the group C standings.

Of course, easier said than done for Gilas especially with Jordan, which has the same objective heading into the match, standing in its way.

Forget about the World Cup standing that saw the Filipinos finish ahead of the Falcons, with the former placing 29th and the latter ending up dead last in the 32-team field, Jordan remained the higher ranked team in the world ranking and it was very much evident in the team’s first two games that served as a warning shot to the rest of its Asiad counterparts.

The Falcons soared to a commanding 97-63 opening win over Thailand and an 84-60 conquest of Bahrain, of course, with a familiar face to all of Filipino fans leading the charge, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.

Hollis-Jefferson is only averaging 16.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and two assists in the first two games but Gilas is very much aware of the damage he can do, especially seeing him put up monster numbers in the PBA and even in the World Cup.

But that, by any means, doesn’t frighten the Filipinos.

In fact, Gilas is very much confident of putting up a body on Hollis-Jefferson especially with head coach Tim Cone and Justin Brownlee also raring to settle the score against the Jordanian naturalized player who put the dent to their partnership’s erstwhile perfect record in the PBA finals.

“They’re gonna be tough. What can you say? They blew this team [Thais] out by 37 points, and we only beat them by 15 or whatever?," admits Cone.

“If you look at it that way, we don’t have much of a chance. But I think [if] you walk into our locker room when you talk to everyone. all of those guys, they think we can beat Jordan,” he added.

Of course, an intriguing sidelight to the match is the Brownlee-Hollis Jefferson showdown, but Gilas had shown that it has an able supporting cast spearheaded by CJ Perez and June Mar Fajardo.

Jordan’s locals, however, are also no pushovers which, despite the absence of sweet-shooting Freddy Ibrahim still has the likes of Sami Bzai and Ahmad Al Dwairi.