GILAS Pilipinas absorbed a stern reality check against Estonia in its first official tune-up game for the FIBA World Cup.
National coach Chot Reyes took his charges’ 71-81 loss in Tallinn in stride and maintained they could only get better for the world cage spectacle the Philippines is co-hosting with Japan and Indonesia from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10.
“Like I said in the dugout, I was very impressed, I was very happy with our first game considering our bigs–this is June Mar’s (Fajardo) first game in six months and Japeth’s (Aguilar) first game in four months,” Reyes said. “For us to continue to battle, we were down 20 and still we showed a lot of fight.
“We ourselves (were) within a basket, we were three points down in the middle of the fourth, and we played the fourth without Justin Brownlee who had suffered cramps by that time,” he added.
Do-it-all guard Dwight Ramos showed the way for Gilas with 16 points, while naturalized forward Justin Brownlee, who arrived in Estonia from the United States just last Monday, chipped in nine markers.
Third Ravena also had nine points for the Philippine five, which played without reigning PBA MVP Scottie Thompson (back spasms).
Naturalized big man Ange Kouame and fellow center AJ Edu were not in the 12-man lineup.
Gilas battled world No. 13 Finland in another exhibition tiff late last night.
Reyes insisted Gilas is a work in progress.
“So, (it’s a) good first step (and I’m) very, very happy,’ Reyes said.
“Going into this ballgame, we know we still have a long way to go, still a lot of work to be done because this is a work in progress, so (I) can’t ask for more.”
Gilas was drawn with Italy, Dominican Republic, and Angola in Group A of the World Cup.
The Filipino cagers need to finish at least in the top two at the end of the group stage to advance to the next round and hopefully boost their bid of becoming the best placed Asian squad to directly qualify to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
