GILAS Pilipinas arrived at the seaport city of Jeddah last week armed with confidence that it can hack it in the continental tilt.
Jolted by a stern reality check handed by Chinese Taipei right in their opening match last Wednesday, the Filipino cagers are now not under any illusion that their path to the Promised Land will be as easy as reciting the A-B-C.
Even Philippine five coach Tim Cone acknowledged that.
“We felt that coming in, no doubt about it. We felt that coming in at the start that we would have a chance to go far and this has made a big roadblock for us right here. But it’s just something we’re going to have to try to overcome,” Cone said. “If we have to come through the losers’ bracket, then we’re going to try to do that.
“But opposed to winning it back in 1985, we were a dominant basketball team back then and the other teams have obviously caught up to us,” he added.
Cone spoke after his charges dropped an 87-95 loss to the Taiwanese in Group D play in the FIBA Asia Cup.
The Filipino dribblers sought a big rebound—albeit a tough task—when they clashed with the world No. 22 New Zealand Tall Blacks at press time last time at the King Abdullah Sports City, where another pro-Pinoy crowd was expected to show up.
The Kiwis blasted Iraq 100-78 in their first game.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” New Zealand skipper Jordan Ngatai said. “The boys set a pretty high standard from the last Asia Cup. Hopefully, we can do better than that.”
Veteran Corey Webster will suit up for New Zealand this time, with the likes of Ngatai, Taylor Britt, Tohi Smith-Milner, and Max Darling leading the charge.
A maiden triumph in the prestigious tourney formerly known as the ABC Championship and FIBA Asia Championship will keep Gilas’s bid for an outright quarterfinals slot alive.
But another loss will leave Gilas in a must-win duel with Iraq in its final game in the group stage tomorrow to make it to the playoffs.
The Philippines stunned New Zealand 93-89 in November last year in the qualifiers but the Tall Blacks redeemed themselves with an 87-70 win in Auckland six months ago.
Naturalized star Justin Brownlee, Kevin Quiambao, former PBA MVP Scottie Thompson, Dwight Ramos, and AJ Edu will be counted upon anew by Cone to carry the team.
“We have not been able to play as well as we wanted in this tournament,” Cone said. “But like I said, there’s only one thing we can do at this point, and that’s move on.”
But Gilas also needs lots of improvement on all fronts to recover—other players have to step up, limiting its fouls, and avoiding a sluggish start should spell the big difference.
