GILAS Pilipinas used a different game plan against an eight-man Lithuanian selection in their tune-up game last Tuesday night but still fell short, absorbing an 80-90 loss in Kaunas.
National coach Chot Reyes charged the setback to experience anew, convinced it will only make them better in their campaign in the FIBA World Cup the country is co-hosting with Japan and Indonesia from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10.
“First of all, we tried a different starting line-up this time, a different combination. We tried to start Justin (Brownlee) at the three spot, we wanted to start Japeth (Aguilar) at the four-spot since he’s been playing five the past few games,” Reyes said. “But now that we have Ange (Kouame) here, we wanted to play Japeth a little bit more at four.
“Obviously, it didn’t work because we got off to a 1-17 start or something. But the good thing is that’s part of why we’re here– to figure out different combinations, different line-ups, to know that nothing is better, nothing is more powerful knowledge than experience,” he added.
Brownlee scattered 20 points while Jamie Malonzo chipped in 14 markers.
June Mar Fajardo and Kiefer Ravena also had 13 and 10 points, respectively, for the Philippine five, which saw action with naturalized big man Ange Kouame for the first time in its European training camp. Kouame arrived in Lithuania last Sunday after his graduation from Ateneo five days ago.
It’s now up to his troops to learn from their defeats, according to Reyes.
“Now that we have that first-hand experience, we should now all know better. That’s part of the learning process and the lessons that we came here to learn,” Reyes said.
“Obviously, we’re not happy with the result but I’m very satisfied with the learning, with the lessons that we picked up. Like I said, that’s why we came here.”
The nationals dropped their first two exhibition matches against Estonia 71-81 and Finland 85-89 last week in Tallinn but redeemed themselves with a pair of victories against Ukraine’s Under-20 squad 70-61 and 84-74 in Kaunas.
Gilas is bracketed with Italy, Dominican Republic, and Angola in Group A of the blue-ribbon world cage spectacle.
