FOSHAN, China—Held to eight first quarter points and failing to drain a triple in the first half, Gilas Pilipinas on Saturday night was handed a brutal reality check by Italy at the start of the 2019 Fiba World Cup.
Outsized and terribly outshot, the Filipinos were down by 29 after the first 10 minutes and by 38 at the half, the fight in them all but taken out by then as the Italians cruised to a 108-62 victory to keep in step with fellow Group D favorite Serbia at Foshan International Sports and Cultural Arena here.
The Serbs were also unrelenting in their debut, scoring a 105-59 ripping of Angola to serve notice of how capable they are of wresting the title away from two-time defending champion the United States.
Gilas will play Nikola Jokic and the hulking Serbs at 7:30 p.m. (Manila time) Monday, with another loss extinguishing all hopes of the Nationals making it past group play and becoming the top Asian team to earn an outright berth to the Tokyo Olympics next year.
The defense that coach Yeng Guiao talked about as key against the Italians was nowhere to be found, as the Filipinos simply could not handle the sheer size and athleticism they were up against.
And the offense that Guiao hoped would click, especially the three-point shot, was never there. The only time the Filipinos hit two straight triples was with under two minutes left, which made it 105-58.
Andray Blatche had 15 points and 10 rebounds and CJ Perez was the only other player in twin digits for Gilas with 15.
Luigi Datome and Amedeo Della Valle have 17 apiece for the Italians. Both played just a combined 33 minutes.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 24 points to lead Serbia, which sat on a 50-32 lead at the half before pulling away in the third period.
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