Justin Brownlee leads Gilas Pilipinas’ rout of host Latvia to open the Filipinos’ Fiba OQT campaign. –FIBA PHOTO
SCHEDULE: Gilas Pilipinas at Fiba OQT in Riga, Latvia
Gilas Pilipinas pounced on Latvia’s early shooting woes and played with steely nerves down the stretch to topple World No. 6 and host Latvia, 89-80, in the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) on Thursday.
The No. 37-ranked Filipinos, overwhelming underdogs in the short meet at Arena Riga that will send a winner to the Paris Olympics, raced to an 8-0 start and built a sizable cushion that they never yielded until the final horn.
“I’m totally shocked to be sitting in front of you guys after winning this basketball game. This is not something we thought we were gonna do, I’ll be honest with you,” said Gilas coach Tim Cone after the Philippines beat a European team for the first time in 64 years.
“We wanted to come in and compete and really put on a good show. We got started early. We hit shots early. And thankfully Latvia missed shots.”
Naturalized ace Justin Brownlee delivered a near triple-double of 26 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists, while young cornerstones Kai Sotto and Dwight Ramos tossed in 18 and 11 points, respectively, for a triumph that got Gilas’ campaign off to a rousing start.
READ: Tim Cone dismisses notion that Gilas not big, fast, strong enough
Barring a massive blowout at the hands of World No. 23 Georgia, the Philippines is on track to advance to the crossover knockout phase which could pit the Filipinos against Cameroon, Brazil or Montenegro.
Chris Newsome scored 10 points, including a couple of late baskets in the final period that kept the Latvians at bay with the results significantly shaking up the Group A race.
Gilas Pilipinas’ Kai Sotto among the top performers against Latvia in the Fiba OQT. –FIBA BASKETBALL
The Latvians, having won 24 of their last 27 Fiba games, were projected to sweep the preliminaries, but struggled against a determined Gilas side and dropped to 1-1 in the OQT.
It also didn’t help the hosts that their outside shooting abandoned them just as the Filipinos hit theirs. Latvia was 10-for-42 while Gilas wound up 9-of-20 from deep.
“There were a couple of stretches, like Kai said, that we kind of lost our way a little bit but it seems like when Latvia was just about ready to make huge run at us, they would miss an open three-point shot,” Cone said.
“And that’s just one of those night for Latvia—they just won’t hit shots tonight.”
Rodions Kurucs and Rolands Smits joined hands for a last-ditch effort for the Latvians, but the Gilas cushion—which swelled to as big as 26 points—proved too big to overhaul.
READ: Tim Cone ‘not satisfied’ until Gilas reaches optimal FIBA OQT form
Kurucs had 18 points, Davis Bertans, Kristers Zoriks and Janis Strelnieks 10 each while Smits had 9 in the Latvian effort that left many in the home crowd in disbelief.
Gilas and Georgia tangle in 18 hours (8:30 p.m. Manila time) at the same venue.
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