GILAS Pilipinas paid a dear price for absorbing a disappointing loss to Jordan last Saturday night.
The Philippine five takes on Qatar today for a slot in the quarterfinals of the 19th Asian Games cage tourney at the Zhegiang University Zijingang Gym in Hangzhou, China.
The match is set at 4 p.m., with the winner advancing to the Last Eight of the quadrennial showcase against Iran.
A victory against Qatar would give Gilas a shot at a podium finish against host China.
Revenge will be in the air, if the Philippines and China clash in the semis, with the hometown crowd expected to turn up in huge numbers eyeing a big payback for Gilas’ 96-75 rout of the Chinese team – behind Jordan Clarkson’s 34-point blast – in the FIBA Basketball World Cup at the SM Mall of Asia Arena last September 4.
The Filipino cagers dropped a humbling 62-87 loss to the Rondae Hollis-Jefferson-led Jordan side two nights back in Group C and failed to clinch an outright berth in the quarterfinals.
The Qataris ousted Indonesia from quarterfinals contention 74-67 also last Saturday at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center.
The Nationals had the Jordanians in the ropes for a while late in the third quarter at 52-all but Jordan went on a 13-0 blitz going into the fourth canto on the way to the Last Eight.
Had Gilas won, it would have avoided the Iranians.
The likes of naturalized players Justin Brownlee and Ange Kouame, CJ Perez, June Mar Fajardo, and reigning PBA MVP Scottie Thompson will be counted upon by Gilas to deliver.
Based on Qatar’s preliminary round tiff against Indonesia, Gilas will need to mark at least three snipers– Abdullah Mousa, Babakar Dieng, and Khaled Abdelbaset– who launched 19 of the squad’s 25 three-point tries.
Qatar also has ferocious rebounders in Nedim Muslic, El Hadji Ndoye and Faris Advic, with the team’s combined 54 rebounds crushing Indonesia’s 32 total under the boards.
With their height and built, the Qataris appear to be more comfortable working inside the perimeter, taking 43 of their 68 field goal tries from within the arc. Indonesia, in contrast, took 30 of its 57 shots from beyond the 3-point line, hitting 12. Qatar was 6 of 25 from afar.
Jordan will try to bag a semis berth tomorrow against the winner of today’s qualification game between Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong.
China, Japan and Iran have also booked slots to the quarterfinals.
