Justin Brownlee leads Gilas Pilipinas’ rout of host Latvia to open the Filipinos’ Fiba OQT marketing campaign. –FIBA PHOTO
SCHEDULE: Gilas Pilipinas at Fiba OQT in Riga, Latvia
Gilas Pilipinas pounced on Latvia’s early taking pictures woes and performed with steely nerves down the stretch to topple World No. 6 and host Latvia, 89-80, within the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Match (OQT) on Thursday.
The No. 37-ranked Filipinos, overwhelming underdogs within the quick meet at Area Riga that can ship a winner to the Paris Olympics, raced to an 8-0 begin and constructed a large cushion that they by no means yielded till the ultimate horn.
“I’m completely shocked to be sitting in entrance of you guys after profitable this basketball sport. This isn’t one thing we thought we have been gonna do, I’ll be trustworthy with you,” mentioned Gilas coach Tim Cone after the Philippines beat a European staff for the primary time in 64 years.
“We needed to come back in and compete and actually placed on present. We received began early. We hit pictures early. And fortunately Latvia missed pictures.”
Naturalized ace Justin Brownlee delivered a close to triple-double of 26 factors, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists, whereas younger cornerstones Kai Sotto and Dwight Ramos tossed in 18 and 11 factors, respectively, for a triumph that received Gilas’ marketing campaign off to a rousing begin.
READ: Tim Cone dismisses notion that Gilas not massive, quick, robust sufficient
Barring an enormous blowout by the hands of World No. 23 Georgia, the Philippines is on observe to advance to the crossover knockout part which may pit the Filipinos in opposition to Cameroon, Brazil or Montenegro.
Chris Newsome scored 10 factors, together with a few late baskets within the remaining interval that saved the Latvians at bay with the outcomes considerably shaking up the Group A race.
Gilas Pilipinas’ Kai Sotto among the many high performers in opposition to Latvia within the Fiba OQT. –FIBA BASKETBALL
The Latvians, having received 24 of their final 27 Fiba video games, have been projected to comb the preliminaries, however struggled in opposition to a decided Gilas aspect and dropped to 1-1 within the OQT.
It additionally didn’t assist the hosts that their outdoors taking pictures deserted them simply because the Filipinos hit theirs. Latvia was 10-for-42 whereas Gilas wound up 9-of-20 from deep.
“There have been a few stretches, like Kai mentioned, that we sort of misplaced our approach a bit bit however it looks like when Latvia was nearly able to make large run at us, they’d miss an open three-point shot,” Cone mentioned.
“And that’s simply a kind of evening for Latvia—they simply received’t hit pictures tonight.”
Rodions Kurucs and Rolands Smits joined palms for a last-ditch effort for the Latvians, however the Gilas cushion—which swelled to as massive as 26 factors—proved too massive to overtake.
READ: Tim Cone ‘not glad’ till Gilas reaches optimum FIBA OQT type
Kurucs had 18 factors, Davis Bertans, Kristers Zoriks and Janis Strelnieks 10 every whereas Smits had 9 within the Latvian effort that left many within the dwelling crowd in disbelief.
Gilas and Georgia tangle in 18 hours (8:30 p.m. Manila time) on the similar venue.
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