KUALA LUMPUR. — Living up to its high billing, the RP-Nokia Youth team overpowered Singapore 96-55 Monday night to complete a four-game sweep of the seventh Southeast Asia Basketball Association Junior Men Championship here.

The win formalized the squad’s entry to the FIBA-Asia Junior men’s qualifying event on Aug. 28-Sept. 5 in Tehran, Iran, a qualifying tournament for the world junior championship. Malaysia, which finished runner-up with a 3-1 mark, also advanced to the Iran meet, where the top two teams clinch slots to the world event.

"We cemented the fact that we are No. 1 in Southeast Asia," said coach Franz Pumaren, but stressed "the bigger test is ahead of us."

In Iran, the team will face Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, China, Korea and Japan, teams that dashed the all pro squad’s hopes of making it to the Beijing Olympics in the FIBA-Asia tourney in Japan last August.

Pumaren, voted the tournament’s best coach, admitted drastic changes would have to be implemented in the team.

"It’s no longer about the condition of the boys; it’s more about putting up a new system. We will be facing different teams in a higher level of competition in Tehran," he said.

Pumaren, however, is unfazed by the gargantuan the task in Iran. "It’s hard but it’s not impossible," he said.

"I think we just achieved a small step to bring back the glory days of the Philippines (in basketball) and earn the respect of our neighbors," said Pumaren.

Filipino-Canadian Norberto Brian Torres was named the Most Valuable Player while Mark Joel de Guzman was picked as Best Defender by members of the covering media.

The Filipino youngsters, formed only in January and backed by Nokia and Julio Sy Jr.’s TAO Corp., were never actually threatened in all their matches, except Thursday when the Malaysians managed to lead by 11 in the first half only to yield by a mile in the end.

The Filipinos routed the Malaysians by 31 points (98-67), the Thais by 16 (92-76), and the Indonesians by 80 (123-43), the biggest in the tournament, and wrapped it all up by 41 points against the Singaporeans for an average winning margin of 42 points.

Ryan Roose Garcia had 16 points with three steals, Mark Joel de Guzman made 14 with four rebounds and three assists, Kyle Nicholas Pascual 12 points with seven rebounds and Samuel Joseph Marata 10 points with three steals.