JAKARTA, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines that once decided to skip the Asian Games, overwhelmed Kazakhstan 96-59 in their men's basketball opener at 2018 Asiad here on Thursday.

Despite the absence 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, Aug. 21, with Clarkson expected to make his much-anticipated debut in the game.

The Philippines opted to participate in the Asiad on August 5, after they decided on July 27 to "pull out of the Asian Games to focus on qualifying for the 2019 FIBA World Cup instead."

In Thursday's other two preliminary round matches, South Korea beat Mongolia 108-73, Japan defeated Qatar 82-71.

With all matches being scheduled from Aug. 14 to Sept. 1, basketball is one of the few sports that reel off their competition before the Asian Games officially open on Aug. 18.