Dwight Ramos had been a steady sidekick to Justin Brownlee in Gilas Pilipinas’ first two games of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup.
But with the long-time naturalized player struggling against Iraq, Ramos gladly shouldered the scoring load, powering the Philippines to a 66-57 breakthrough win that secured their place in the qualifying round on Saturday at the King Abdullah Sports City in Saudi Arabia.
The 6-foot-3 guard finished with 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting, along with five rebounds — none more important than the timely buckets he drained in the pivotal third quarter.
After trailing for most of the first half, Gilas managed to tie the game at 33-all by halftime. Then Ramos took over, erupting for 10 of his 21 points in a decisive 22-7 third-quarter run that gave the Philippines a commanding 55-40 advantage heading into the final frame.
For Ramos, it was simply about capitalizing on the defensive attention Brownlee draws.
“I always try to play off of JB (Brownlee). You know, all the teams — once they play the Philippines, their focus is on JB. So I just take it like an opportunity to use JB’s presence there and just play off of him,” Ramos said.
(C) FIBA
In their earlier losses to Chinese Taipei and New Zealand, Ramos had consistently backed up Brownlee with 16 and 19 points, respectively. This time, he took the lead role as Brownlee was held to just eight points on 3-of-12 shooting.
AJ Edu also delivered a strong performance with nine points, seven rebounds, three steals, and two blocks. Meanwhile, Carl Tamayo and June Mar Fajardo chipped in six points apiece.
That balanced effort is exactly what head coach Tim Cone wants to see in Gilas’ Asia Cup campaign.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about, we have to use Justin not just as a scorer, but we could play off of him because he does draw so much attention,” Cone said.
“From a teammate standpoint, we’re all staying around watching him play because he’s incredible. But we have to continue to learn how to use him when they’re denying him, because that means they’re not in position to help when they double-team him in the post or when he’s setting a ball screen — they don’t wanna leave him,” he added.
“Guys just gotta step up and Dwight stepped up and hit shots.”
Gilas Pilipinas now advances to the qualifying round with a quarterfinal berth at stake. They will face the second seed from Group C, either Jordan or hosts Saudi Arabia.
