Justin Brownlee, one of two naturalized Filipino players on Gilas’ roster, won’t be denied a trip to the Asian Games’ basketball finals.
The 35-year-old hoopster carried Gilas on his back to complete a come-from-behind victory in the semifinals to dethrone defending champion and Asian Games host China.
The victory gave the Philippines the ticket to the men’s basketball finals of this continental tournament for the first time in three decades.
Gilas clawed back from 20 points down early in the third quarter on the heroics of Brownlee and finished a gut-wrenching contest, 77-76.
Just a day earlier, Brownlee led Gilas with a 36-point performance against a gritty Iranian national team that fought their way back from a 21-point deficit to briefly take the lead.
Brownlee, seemingly fatigued by the victory against Iran, had a poor start against China, contributing only 6 of Gilas’ 30-point total in the first half.
China led the Philippines by 18 at the halftime break. He ended the game with 33 points, 21 of them from the seven 3-point shot converted in the second half.
Gilas head coach Tim Cone admitted they were running out of ideas at half time on how to overhaul China’s lead and get Gilas to the Asian Games finals—a trip Cone and the 1998 Philippine Centennial Team that he coached missed after an almost-won semifinals match against South Korea slipped through their hands. He said the coaching staff just told Brownlee to “go for it.”
“I’d lost hope all the way through until the last, what 30 seconds or 23 seconds. I thought for sure we were gonna lose that game,” Cone told the post-game press conference.
“But the good news is even though I lost hope, our players didn’t lose hope. They kept fighting; they kept battling. Again, all the credit goes to our players. They were amazing,” Cone added.
Now, a quarter of a century later, Cone got his redemption and a chance to finally win the Asian Games basketball crown.
China appeared ready to run roughshod over Gilas at the start of the second half. Then, Brownlee erupted with a barrage of points including two triples to narrow the deficit to 12 points at the end of the third quarter.
Even as China kept a good-sized lead, it was clear that the momentum had shifted to the side of the Philippines when Brownlee started to hit his stride despite the tighter defense thrown at him by China.
Aleksandar Dordevic, national team coach of China, appeared worried as Brownlee made all of his 5 attempts from beyond the arch in the final quarter—a performance scarily reminiscent of how Jordan Clarkson almost single-handedly beat the Chinese team he coached at last month’s World Cup in Manila. Dordevic later took time to congratulate Brownlee for his game-winning effort.
With 1:46 left in the game, China was still ahead, 76-69. The defending champion had a chance to extend that lead after Zhao Jiwei was fouled as he drove for a lay up. But the sweet-shooting guard uncharacteristically missed both free throws to leave the door ajar for Gilas.
In just 66 seconds, Brownlee knocked down 8 points, the last basket being the 3-point shot he made with 24 seconds left that gave Gilas the winning margin.
China had one last chance to salvage the victory for the home crowd, which included former NBA superstar and Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming. But an unmolested elbow jumper Zhang Zhenlin with 4 seconds left hit the front of the ring—a missed shot that CJ Perez rebounded to preserve the win.
Surprisingly, Gilas out rebounded China, 44-36, and made more field goals, 31-27. The squads each made eight 3-point shots but China had more steals, assists and points off turnovers.
On Friday night, Gilas will have a chance to win the gold and to get back at Jordan which dealt the Philippines men’s basketball team an embarrassing 87-62 loss.
Jordan beat Chinese Taipei, 90-72, in the other semifinals match Wednesday.
China and Chinese Taipei with duke it out for the bronze also on Friday.
