Friday night couldn’t get much worse for Marcio Lassiter.
The San Miguel Beermen sniper suffered a cut on his nose after an inadvertent elbow from the opposition in the third quarter of Gilas Pilipinas’ 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers match versus Kazakhstan.
This marks the second time in the Qualifiers that Lassiter got his face bloodied. He got his first cut back in the fourth window last September, when the Filipino cagers faced a Nik Khahbahrami-headed Iran in Tehran.
Photo from FIBA.com
Lassiter was able to return to the game just moments after, and even made one of Gilas’ most important shots in the closing moments – a fly-by corner three-pointer that cut the opposition’s lead to just a field goal.
Unfortunately though, his heroic deed went to waste, as Gilas lost, 88-92.
“It’s disappointing,” said the Fil-American cager, who finished with 13 points on 55.6 percent shooting from the field – 3-of-4 from beyond the arc – along with three assists, two rebounds, two steals, and a block in over 27 minutes.
The heartbreaking loss sends Gilas’ record to 5-4, while allowing the Kazakhs to fan their hopes of making it into the World Cup. And for the program pioneer, this is now a time where the Nationals’ character will be put to the test.
“This is what will test our character,” Lassiter said. “Our backs are against the wall right now. This is definitely a test to ourselves and we’ll work out what we’ll have to do. We made mistakes and we’ll figure out what we did wrong.
“We can’t dwell on the past,” the 31-year-old furthered.
“We have another big game on Monday.”
