Gilas Pilipinas taking everything ‘on the chin’ as it crashes out of Olympic qualifier

Kai Sotto and the Philippines had some flashes of brilliance but failed to sustain it through four quarters. —PHOTO COURTESY OF FIBA

For a brilliant stretch, Gilas Pilipinas came up with good performances that led to sterling results and had bad outcomes come out of great effort.

Early Friday morning (Manila time) however, things got downright ugly.

“No excuses and not much to say about it other than that we were outplayed, outcoached and outgunned,” said national coach Tab Baldwin after the Filipinos stumbled to an ugly 94-67 rout at the hands of the Dominican Republic in an Olympic Qualifying Tournament match in Belgrade.

Baldwin’s statement zeroed in on everything that happened after the Philippines took a 33-25 lead late in the first half. The defense lost its urgency, the offense moved like it was wading in mud and Dominican Republic outscored the Filipinos by 35 from that point onward.

Baldwin said this was not the Gilas Pilipinas he knew.

“I think that we aren’t what we were tonight,” he said.

“[W]e have to really look inside of ourselves and understand that there sometimes can be an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, and tonight, it was the devil that ruled our performance and we have to be better than that; we can’t allow that to happen [again].”

Baldwin had made it clear that the results in the tournament mattered less than the performance. In this case, however, both performance and results left everyone wanting.

With Gelvis Solano darting freely into the lane for dunks and layups, Jhonatan Araujo bullying defenders down low and Victor Liz knocking down triples, the Dominicans outscored the Filipinos, 26-10 in the third period to pull away for good. Gilas Pilipinas’ defense couldn’t stay in step with its foes and its the fluidity in offense in the first half dried up and the country crashed out in the hunt for an Olympic berth.

“We didn’t stand up to the pressure,” said Baldwin, who drew 16 points from Jordan Heading and 10 more Ange Kouame—the only double-digit scores for Gilas.

And Baldwin doesn’t want to sugarcoat the poor performance.

“So I told the guys, look your questioners directly in the eye and understand that people have the right to question the way that we played tonight, and we answer the question: We played badly.

“[W]e’ve got some … results that have flattered us a little bit over the last couple of weeks, and some performances that may have flattered us as well. But, certainly, tonight was a lesson [on] what [kind of team] we don’t want to be.”

The bad news is the Philippines isn’t going to Tokyo for the Summer Games. But that was a long shot anyway. The good news? The team has time to become the kind of squad it needs to be for the ultimate goal: the 2023 Fiba World Cup.

And it’s going to take a lot of learning to get to that level.

“A sort of a mixed campaign here with a decent performance against Serbia and a disappointing performance tonight, but these young men will work hard together. We’ll take this on the chin, and we’ll try to learn our lessons and build for the future,” Baldwin said.

“[W]e wanted to compete and show that we belong on the world stage,” Heading added. “None of us have experienced this high level of basketball yet so, obviously, we’re going to take a lot of lessons with us.”

If the team absorbs its lessons well, something good could come out of ugly nights such as this latest defeat. INQ