JAKARTA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines beat Kazakhstan 96-59 in their 2018 Asian Games basketball tie here on Thursday.

Despite the absense of NBA star Jordan Clarkson, the Philippines surged into a 12-2 lead in the first three minutes of the game and never looked back.

Stanley Pringle led the Filipinos with 18 points, while Christian Standhardinger and James Yap came off the bench to contribute 15 and 12 points respectively. Anton Bykov weighed in with 13 points for Kazakhstan, with Dmitriy Gavrilov and Rustam Yergali adding 9 and 8 points respectively.

The Philippines will take on China on Tuesday, August 21, with Clarkson expected to make his much-anticipated debut in that game.