THE Philippines survived a pesky Qatar side, 80-74, and although Gilas Pilipinas swept its three games in Group B, Head Coach Chot Reyes showed his dismay over how his wards handled their final assignment in the preliminaries of the International Basketball Federation Asia Cup last Sunday night in Beirut.
“You all know that if we had played Korea or Japan tonight, we would have been heading home,” Reyes said in the postgame huddle. “No way we’ll win like that. Seventeen turnovers. We shot less than 40 percent from the field. We couldn’t stop [Mansour Elhadary].”
The Qatari guard Elhadary paced his team with 23 points, while shooting an efficient 10-for-15 from the field. He also finished with six assists and three steals.
Abdulrahman Saad helped out with a double-double of 18 points and 11 boards as the Qataris emerged as the Philippines’s most difficult opponents in the tournament.
But in front of an incredible Filipino crowd inside the Nouhad Nawfal Sports Complex, Gilas headed into the knockout quarterfinals unscathed.
Playing without big men June Mar Fajardo and Christian Standhardinger, both of who are nursing injuries, Gilas saw their wing guys step up.
Matthew Wright caught fire from deep and poured in 25 points on seven triples. He also added four assists, a rebound and a steal.
Carl Bryan Cruz also found his touch and knocked down three treys on his way to 13 points. Gabe Norwood chipped in with an all-around performance of 10 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks.
In the third quarter, Gilas saw its lead reach it s high of 20 points. But Qatar kept knocking on their door and went on an 8-0 blitz to trim the Filipinos’ lead to five, 73-68, with 2:36 remaining in the game.
That was when Wright teamed up with Terrence Romeo to buy some cushion and seal the win for the Philippines.
After the game, Filipino fans hosted a dinner for Gilas. They celebrated with their heroes, bonding and taking selfies with their idols over the meal.
As they await the winner of the qualifying match between Korea and Japan, Gilas will take two days off. They play again at 2 a.m. on Thursday (Manila time) in the knockout quarterfinals.
Image credits: fiba.com