MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas began the FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia the identical approach it ended the match’s Qualifiers again in February – with back-to-back losses to Chinese language-Taipei and New Zealand.
And now the Nationals are in an absolute make-or-break scenario as they battle fellow winless Iraq (0-2) in the present day to find out who stays within the hunt for the quarterfinal spherical and who crashes out for good in Group D.
Winner of the 11 a.m. match on the King Abdullah Sports activities Metropolis (4 p.m. Manila time) takes No. 3 seeding within the bracket and the correct to face the No. 2 group of Group C in a playoff for a seat within the Final-8.
The troops of coach Tim Cone discovered themselves on this predicament after absorbing numbing defeats to a pair of outdated tormentors, the Taiwanese (87-95 Tuesday night time) and the Tall Blacks (86-94 Thursday night time).
“We’re upset that we misplaced two in a row.” stated Cone after the Nationals acquired on the shedding finish in opposition to the 2 once more practically six months after Chinese language-Taipei and NZ stopped their spotless 4-0 mark within the ultimate window of the ACQ with 91-84 and 87-70 verdicts, respectively.
“I don’t suppose all of us noticed that coming and so we’re upset. However the match’s not over for us. We’ve got a giant sport in opposition to Iraq arising and see if we will get into the subsequent spherical,” he added.
Very similar to within the opener in opposition to Taiwan, Gilas was pressured to play on the backfoot versus the Tall Blacks and trailed by as many as 18.
And identical to final sport, Justin Brownlee and Co. mounted a searing rebellion in the direction of the tip, threatening at 82-85 earlier than New Zealand restored a seven-point cushion and put out the hearth.
“We’re clearly struggling within the first half however we’re coming again and I assumed we performed a extremely good second half however we simply couldn’t recover from the hump,” rued Cone.