TAIPEI: Up against another arch-enemy for the second straight night, Gilas Pilipinas couldn’t recover from another drought and fell flat on its face for the first time in the 37th Jones Cup.

South Korea forced the Filipinos into a maze of turnovers and to a scoreless spell lasting close to six minutes in the fourth quarter on Monday night to pull out an 82-79 victory and snap a two-game losing streak at the Xinchuang gymnasium here.

The Koreans broke free from a 58-all contest with an 11-0 blitzkrieg that crippled the Filipinos, who couldn’t sustain the brilliance of a scintillating 77-69 victory over Chinese Taipei-A in their debut on Sunday night.

Terrence Romeo again tried his best but got little help this time as the Filipinos fell from Cloud 9 and would have to quickly pick up the pieces with powerhouses Spartak Primorye and Iran next on their schedule.

“It doesn’t matter what I did in the fourth quarter because our team still lost,” the 5-foot-10 Romeo, who has easily been the darling of the tournament because of his superb one-on-one plays, told international reporters.

“We need to learn from our mistakes and make the team win,” he said after tossing in nine of his 23 points in the fourth period.

Romeo was spectacular for the second straight night and Gary David came out of his shell to shoot 16.

But the other gunners of Team Philippines were effectively shut out, especially in the fourth period where it was only Calvin Abueva who was able to contribute to the Filipinos' output.

“We were outplayed tonight,” coach Tab Baldwin said. “I thought we were too individualistic and that is something we have to work on (for the rest of the tournament).”

The Korean squad that is here is a less seasoned crew compared to the one the Philippines conquered in the Final Four of the Fiba-Asia Manila Championship in 2013 that put the Filipinos back in the World Cup.

But the young Koreans didn’t budge an inch and fought it out hard with the veteran Filipino players as they made a huge number of Overseas Filipino Workers go home frustrated this time.

“We are getting better and we are gaining the confidence, especially after tonight’s win,” said Moon Tae-young, an American-Korean who scored 17 points and had 12 rebounds against the beefy Filipino frontline.

Moon scored four free throws and shooting guard Lee Jung-hyun had one of his three triples in that crippling run.

David forged the game’s last tie at 58 with a long jumper at the 8:56 mark, before the Filipinos went totally cold.

Gilas’ next basket would be with 3:36 remaining, and by that time, the Koreans already had momentum and wouldn’t be denied.

Baldwin chose to sit out amateur Troy Rosario, Sonny Thoss, Dondon Hontiveros and Matt Ganuelas-Rosser and got little mileage from those he activated for Monday night — Jimmy Alapag, Ranidel De Ocampo, JC Intal and Aldrech Ramos.

Alapag, who came out of retirement from the PBA to be with this team, wound up scoreless in under eight minutes, Ramos and Intal had two apiece and De Ocampo, who is recovering from a hamstring pull, five.

Gilas will come up with a different 12-man roster against the Russians of Spartak Primorye at 1 p.m. on Tuesday.

Spartak, like the Iranians, have 3-0 records and remain as the only unbeaten sides in the nine-team, nine-day tournament that gives the championship to the team with the best record after the elimination round.