Gilas Pilipinas begun its FIBA Asia qualifier campaign Thursday in Hong Kong, scoring a lopsided victory against the host team, and providing Filipino fans a glimpse of how the premier Philippine basketball program will evolve in the next few years.
Gilas shook off an uneven first half, where Hong Kong even outscored it 22-18 in the second quarter, and displayed how potent the Triangle Offense espoused by head coach Tim Cone, turning a 4-point half-time lead into a 30-point victory, 94-64, when the buzzer sounded.
Clearly, Hong Kong, ranked 119 in the world by FIBA, isn’t in the league of 38th ranked Gilas at this stage.
On Sunday, Gilas expects to face a tougher opponent in Chinese Taipei when they square off at the PhilSports Arena. Chinese Taipei, ranked 78th in the world, lost to higher ranked New Zealand, 69-89, in the other Group B game Thursday. New Zealand was ranked 21st in the world.
Naturalized Filipino player Justin Brownlee, who led Gilas’ golden finish in last year’s Asian Games, top scored with 16 points while Gilas center Kai Sotto contributed 15 rebounds, two more than the points he scored. Scottie Thompson dished out 9 assists, almost a third of Gilas’ total 33.
Coach Cone told an interview after the game that Gilas’ first half performance shows jitters of playing together for the first time. But once settled, Cone noted, the players started to display their potential to play as a team, with offense flowing well from a disciplined defense.
“But we’re gonna get better than this,” he said. Indeed, with first-game jitters out of the way, Gilas is expected to perform better in their game versus Chinese Taipei, which players tougher than Hong Kong.
Cone wants to keep this group of players together for the next four years—a period that the multi-awarded basketball coach would see the team celebrate their triumphs and agonize over losses.
