Kai Sotto. Photo: FIBA
It took just eight months for Gilas Philippines to add another interesting chapter to the rich history of this basketball-loving country.
In less than 24 hours, the team made sure to add more information to the story.
The Philippines advanced to the semifinals after falling to Georgia, 96-94, late Thursday to continue its journey in the ongoing FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Latvia.
After winning the Asian Games gold for the first time in six decades last October, Gilas Philippines set a milestone with an 89-80 win over world No. 6 and host Latvia in the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) on Thursday morning, marking the first time the country beat a European team in 64 years. But as national coach Tim Cone stressed, the Philippines belongs in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and not just in the footnotes.
,[W]”We are not here just to win a match,” he said after the win over Latvia.
In fact, the Filipinos registered two consecutive wins against the European nations. They came back from a 20-point deficit and took the lead late in the game, but lost to the country ranked 23rd in the FIBA ladder. Still, the world No. 37 team shut the door on Georgia as it secured and eventually secured the plus-18 quota, pushing the Philippines into the semifinals and within two wins of making it to the Paris Olympics.
“We really want to try to reach the finals and see what happens if we reach the finals. That's really our goal,” Cone said. The Philippines has not played Olympic basketball since the Munich edition of the Summer Games in 1972. Twelve years before that last appearance, the Philippines prevailed over Spain, 84-82, in the preliminary round of basketball competitions at the Rome Olympiad.
Brownlee shines again
The Philippines had not beaten a European team since then until beating the Latvians convincingly on Thursday. And Cone said his team is intent on making sure this win does not become the highlight of the tournament.
Justin Brownlee led Gilas once again against Georgia at Arena Riga, finishing with 28 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Dwight Ramos and CJ Perez scored 16 and 14 points, respectively.
The Georgian team, led by NBA veterans Sandro Mamukelashvili and Goga Bitadze, looked on track to make the last four thanks to a superb start powered by precise shooting.
But they blew their chance in the third period when they had no answer to a hard-fought team led by Perez and young Carl Tamayo, who scored seven points in the lead. Gilas also performed well in the absence of Kai Sotto, who suffered an injury to his right rib in the first half, and will now face either Brazil or Cameroon in the semifinals. Sotto was instrumental in that big upset against Latvia, scoring 18 points.
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Georgia were already in a tough situation before the match against the Philippines as they needed to beat Gilas by 19 or more points after their 83–55 defeat to Latvia two days earlier.
