TIANJIN — A day after Jordan pointed the way to the exit, Powerade-Team Pilipinas, with little prodding from Qatar Saturday, walked out and slammed the door behind it.

Out of the running for a top three spot in the 25th FIBA Asia World Championship here, the Nationals turned their backs on the only window left to make it to the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Istanbul, falling to the Qataris, 85-63, and crashing into a playoff for seventh place with either South Korea or Taiwan at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

The possibility of the fourth and fifth-placed teams getting invited as wildcard entrants to Istanbul has raised the stakes for those spots, providing quarterfinal losers a huge incentive to win their last two games.

The Nationals appeared to be unaffected by the development.

They trailed early, 10-2, and never fully recovered against a tall, fast and deadly Qatar team that drained 6 of 11 three-point shots in the first half in opening a 49-32 spread.

Showing none of the fire it exhibited during the preliminary round, especially in the come-from-behind victories over Japan and Taiwan, the RP team looked like a spent force waiting to get this tournament over and done with.

After missing 18 free throws in an 81-70 quarterfinal loss to Jordan, the Nationals shot just six foul shots in the first 20 minutes and missed three, while the Qataris went 13 of 20 aside from picking up an 11-0 advantage in second chance points.

The shooting percentage in the first quarter alone was woeful – 12-of-38 overall with 15 missed three-pointers.

Jayjay Helterbrand was 0 for 6, Sonny Thoss 0 for 2, Mick Pennisi and James Yap 1 for 4, and Gabe Norwood and Kerby Raymundo 1 for 3.

Shooting guard Willie Miller, assigned extended minutes at point guard position, sat out the game with a pulled groin muscle.

On the Qatari side, Mohammed Saleem Abdulla went 5 for 5, drilling seven straight points at the start of the second period where they broke the game open, 33-16 from a seven-point edge after 10 minutes.

Taiwan bowed to host China, 101-83, and South Korea lost a thriller to Lebanon, 68-65, in quarterfinal playoffs Friday, sending the Chinese and the Lebanese on a collision course in the Final Four.

The other semifinal match, between Jordan and Iran, which ousted Qatar, 75-65, in the knockout, was also playing at press time.