Gilas Pilipinas pulled the rug underneath Qatar, 74-71, for a triumphant start in its 2nd Doha International Cup campaign Saturday morning (Manila time).
Plenty of heroes came through with crucial plays down the stretch as the Nationals completed the comeback from as much as 11 points down, much to the delight of the Filipino crowd that filled the QU Sports & Events Complex.
A cutting Justin Brownlee nailed the go-ahead jam off AJ Edu’s assist from the post, before Dwight Ramos took advantage of the mismatch and attacked Mike Lewis to push their lead to 72-69 with only 1:42 left in the game.
(C) Qatar Basketball Federation
Lady Luck would even smile on the Filipino dribblers in the closing seconds, when Tyler Harris failed to convert a three-point play — his basket counted after Edu got called for goaltending — that would have tied the game up.
Scottie Thompson then calmly sank both of his charities with 16.7 ticks to spare for the eventual scoreline, and a missed attempt from way out by Lewis as time expired sealed the hard-earned triumph for Coach Tim Cone and Co.
Ramos finished with 15 points on a 3-of-5 clip from three-point distance to top-score for Gilas. June Mar Fajardo delivered 12 points and seven rebounds.
Brownlee tallied all-around numbers of 10 points, five rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Thompson produced 10 points as well.
Edu, who’s still in the process of finding his groove within Cone’s scheme of things, made a good account of himself and registered six points, a game-high 10 rebounds, a pair of assists, and a blocked shot in 23 minutes.
He was key in Gilas’ 14-3 run to erase a 66-58 deficit, scoring off a two-handed jam that got them to within a point before dishing that dime to Brownlee to give themselves the lead for good at 70-69 with 2:27 remaining.
(C) Qatar Basketball Federation
The B.League import contributed not just on offense but on the other end, too, contesting shots of his counterparts while hauling down important rebounds as the Qataris lost steam and could no longer keep up come winning time.
It sure is a tough loss for the home team particularly to coach Hakan Demir as he finds himself losing again to Cone, the same man that ousted him in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Asian Games when he was still mentoring Iran.
Harris led Qatar with 17 points in the defeat. Lewis backed him up with 15 points while Moustapha Ndao, Moustafa Fouda, and Ndoye Seydou added nine each.
Gilas will return to action on Saturday night at 11:00 p.m. Manila time as it faces FIBA Asia Cup 2022 runners-up Lebanon, who lost to Egypt earlier, 70-82.
The Scores:
First Game
Egypt 82 – Mohamed 26, Aboushousha 17, Oraby 11, Mahmoud 9, Shehata 6, A. Zahran 5, Abdellatif 5, Khalaf 2, Nasr 1, Zahran 0, Elmekawi 0, Abdelgawad 0.
Lebanon 70 – Majok 17, Zeinoun 12, Khoueiry 10, Hadidian 10, Ezzedine 9, Mansour 7, Mezher 3, Alkhoury 2, Moussa 0, Samaha 0, Rtail 0, Makhlouf 0.
Quarterscores: 23-15, 47-37, 64-56, 82-70.
Second Game
Philippines 74 – Ramos 15, Fajardo 12, Brownlee 10, Thompson 10, Quiambao 7, Edu 6, Perez 6, Oftana 3, Tamayo 3, Newsome 2.
Qatar 71 – Harris 17, Lewis 15, Ndao 9, Fouda 9, Seydou 9, Abbsher 7, Saad 3, Magassa 2, Dieng 0, Grantham 0, Avdic 0.
Quarterscores: 18-20, 38-40, 51-50, 74-71.
