THE specter of lack of preparation hunted down Gilas Pilipinas anew last Sunday night.
Coach Chot Reyes admitted his hastily formed charges who spent just three weeks toughening up simply could not jive.
“Obviously, after every game, especially after a loss we always feel that we could’ve done a little bit better,” Reyes said. “The preparation certainly is very crucial. Like today, we still have a lot of things that we have to work on. The players are not yet familiar with each other and even me, this was my first time ever to coach Thirdy, Dwight, Ange, and several others on the team.”
The Filipino cagers fell to a sharp and cohesive New Zealand five, absorbing a 63-88 shellacking before a forlorn sellout crowd that came in droves at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
High-flying wingman and Japan B. League import Thirdy Ravena scattered a game-high 23 points, to go with five rebounds, five assists, and five steals, while fellow B. League campaigner Dwight Ramos backed him up with a double-double of 18 markers and 10 boards.
But their efforts were not enough to save the Nationals from going 1-1 in the February window while the Tall Blacks hiked their record to 2-0 in Group A.
Robert Bolick also had 10 points in the loss that came on the heels of Gilas’ 88-64 win over India last Friday.
Tom Vodanovich and Dion Prewster led New Zealand with 20 points each, while Rob Loe added 15. Taane Samuel, a former La Salle player, also had 12 points while Ethan Rusbatch 10 for New Zealand.
Reyes remained proud of the fight Gilas showed, only faltering late in the third quarter.
“I was very proud of the effort of our guys. We played a tough team, and we didn’t back down. We kept ourselves in the ball game until late in the third quarter but as I said, couldn’t ask for anything more from our players,” Reyes said.
“I thought they came in and executed. Credit to New Zealand, they were able to pick apart our defensive schemes and that’s how it got reflected in the score of the ball game.”
