SO young, so good.
If there is one player who surely made a big mark in the Philippines’ FIBA Asia Cup campaign, it’s versatile forward Kevin Quiambao.
While Gilas Pilipinas has bid adieu to the prestigious Asian cage meet after a stinging 64-80 loss to world No. 7 and reigning two-time champion Australia in the quarterfinals last Wednesday night, the 6-foot-5 former two-time UAAP MVP said the squad has nothing to be ashamed of.
“For me, as a young gun here, as much as I want to execute the system, follow the game plan, it didn’t work the whole game,” Quiambao said.
“So, on to the next one and we will keep our heads high for this one,” he added.
A blistering start from the top-seeded Boomers spelled doom for the Nationals, who crashed out of the 16-team field but slightly improved on their ninth-place finish in the same edition of the meet in 2022 in Indonesia.
Quiambao, 24, showed the way for the Pinoy dribblers with 17 points paired with four rebounds but the Aussies’ vaunted defense—aided big time by their crisp passing game, fast break attacks, and torrid outside shooting—made life difficult for Gilas.
Naturalized star Justin Brownlee bled for buckets, being held down to just 10 markers on 3-of-7 attempts.
“We had a hard time executing our system and we couldn’t buy a basket,” Quiambao said. “It’s a great learning experience for us. We will carry this over to the next one in November.
