Entering the 32nd Southeast Asian Games, Gilas Pilipinas’ biggest threat in their redemption campaign were defending champion Indonesia and Thailand.
But both were in another group.
There was a bigger threat though — host Cambodia who is in the same group as the Philippines.
Facing a Cambodian team that featured six naturalized Americans on Thursday evening, Gilas could not get anything going, falling behind 26-14 early and faced a 61-40 deficit late in the third quarter.
After the dust settled, Gilas suffered a 79-68 loss to the hosts — the national team’s worst loss in the regional meet.
Already playing with just 11 healthy bodies entering the game as Calvin Oftana suffered a calf injury against Malaysia two days ago, Justin Brownlee also suffered from dehydration early.
It also did not help that Gilas could not execute their plays well due to the flooring used by the Cambodian Basketball Federation inside the Morodok Techo Stadium.
(C) Ariya Kurniawan
“We have to accept it, but if somebody like Chris (Newsome) falls like that, hindi maiwasan yun. But, like I said, we are all playing under the same conditions. However, if they are the bigger team, mas lamang ang malaki because we are relying on our quickness,” rued Gilas head coach Chot Reyes after the game.
“But I’m not here to make excuses.”
Despite the hurdles Gilas figured in the game, Reyes believed they had a fighting chance against the “Cambodia Six” composed of Dwayne Morgan, Sayeed Pridgett, Brandon Peterson, Darrin Dorsey, Oscar Lopes, and Darius Henderson.
Gilas missed a ton of layups, shot a horrid 7-of-16 from the foul stripe, and went just 5-of-20 from deep.
(C) Ariya Kurniawan
“Definitely a concern. Hindi siya makahinga. That’s a real problem. We were down in the first half, and he did not score. When did you ever see Justin Brownlee go scoreless in a half? Breath of life when he came back, but he had to come out because he was cramping up. Those are the things that we have to deal with,” he continued about Brownlee, who was limited to just 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting. “Continued hydration, and hopefully, the longer he stays here, the more his body will acclimate to it.
“But the others should also pick up the slack. We missed a ton of layups, a ton of free throws, so if we clean those up, even with Justin struggling, we could have made this a closer ball game.”
In two days, Gilas will need to suck it up as they face Singapore. Winning will let them continue in their redemption tour in Cambodia.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cignal’s and SBP’s Carlo Pamintuan sent a recording of the post-game to Tiebreaker Times.
