Road to glory navigable for Gilas Pilipinas
I write this, Gilas Pilipinas was hours away from battling Qatar.
Or, better yet, we were hours away from bottling up Qatar.
I feel fine thinking we could beat Qatar, judging from the way Gilas had put away China and Iraq in brilliant succession. Surely, China and Iraq are way above class over Qatar.
The 96-87 win against China was the tournament’s first biggest upset in the Fiba Asia Cup, but as equally stunning a feat was Gilas’ 84-68 dismantling of incongruous Iraq.
While Terrence Romeo starred in both victories, Christian Standhardinger and Carl Cruz shared billing honors with Romeo especially in the rout of Iraq. Did Chot Reyes not discipline, in no small way, both Standhardinger and Cruz during the Iraq game three weeks ago in the Taipei Jones Cup?
Reyes sent Standhardinger to the lockers and benched Cruz for their retaliatory moves against the extra-physical Iraqis.
In Taipei, Standhardinger and Cruz were in national colors for the first time. Thus, they should have behaved to the hilt. As rookies, their
infant fangs are too brittle yet for roughhousing forays.
Amazingly, Standhardinger and Cruz are quick learners.
In Friday’s game against Iraq in Beirut, Lebanon, they outdid themselves.
The 6-foot-8 Standhardinger fired 16 points behind Romeo’s team-high 17. The 6-foot-3 Cruz had 11 points, embellishing that with perfect three-point shooting with three threes.
I won’t be surprised if Standhardinger and Cruz should proceed to shine again against Qatar on Sunday night.
I like what Reyes reminded his crew hours before the Qatar encounter: Stay hungry.
“We have to keep the low-key attitude and have the hunger in us (at all times),” Reyes told Fibacom.
We would have advanced to the quarterfinals anyways even if we lost to Qatar.
But a win would make Gilas as the unbeaten group topnotcher, securing calm waters for us since the other favorites would be out of our way sailing into the next round.
Still, in the event that we stumbled against Qatar, the road to glory will remain navigable.
We’ve insulted China that much and, even I see both Australia and New Zealand as potential roadblocks, we might yet make it to promised land. Heart harks hooray!