GILAS FALL TO AUSSIES IN WC QUALIES
Gilas Pilipinas takes lead in the first quarter but fails to sustain form, suffers first loss in World Cup qualifiers
The Gilas Pilipinas put up a gallant stand against Australia in the first half before losing steam and losing to Australian, 84-68, in the second window of the 2019 Fiba World Cup qualifiers in Mel- bourne last night.
Gilas Pilipinas started strong and led by as much as five in the second quarter after Cebuano big man Jun Mar Fajardo converted a layup with 5:03 left in the second quarter.
However, the Aussies, started to impose their strength—size and heft—towards the end of the second quarter and used a 12-2 blast to take a five-point lead at the half, 30-25.
“We had a very good start, put ourself in a position to get a win, but they came out with their veteran plays and they pressed us full court. We made some rookie mistakes in our inbounds play, not making our free throws, and they just destabilized us,” naturalized Filipino Andray Blatche
I can’t wait to see what the game’s going to be like in the Philippines. I can’t wait, it’s going to be awesome. ANDREJ LEMANIS Australia’s head coach on feeling like an “away” team after seeing so many Filipino fans in the stand.
said in the post-game press conference that was streamed live in the Fiba website.
Gilas Pilipinas’ Japeth Aguilar and Kiefer Ravena combined for seven points at the early part of the third quarter capped by the latter’s fast break layup to bring the gap down to three, 41-44.
However, Australia’s Cameron Gliddon hit back-to-back threes to make it 50-41 and the No. 10 team in the world was on cruise control the rest of the way.
Australia erected the lead to 21, 70-49, the biggest in the game, after a Matthew Hodgson followup with eight minutes left in the game.
Fajardo top scored for Gilas Pilipinas with 15, Matthew Wright added nine, while Roger Pogoy and naturalized center Andray Blatche contributed eight apiece.
Gilas, who played without the service of Jason Castro, the country’s and Asia’s top point guard, absorbed their first loss in three games after beating Chinese Taipei and Japan in Group B.
Gilas coach Chot Reyes said that he had the game against Japan at the back of his mind and wanted to manage the minutes of his players.
“I thought we had a good start, but we came to this ball game with our eyes wide open, we had no illusions, All we wanted to do was compete, and I felt we did that, we competed hard but it’s hard coming to ball games when you are also thinking of the next game. As you all know we have a long trip ahead of us to go back home and play Japan in two days and that was in the back of my mind the whole game,” Reyes said.
Reyes added that he hope the team will be able to get some energy of the crowd this Sunday as the players will be tired from all the traveling.
“As much as we wanted to go all out for the victory, we also had to manage minutes because we all know we are going to need fresh legs when we play Japan,” he said. /