By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
In 40 minutes of straight basketball action, “Laban” and “Puso” were on full display.
Needing a basket to win the game, Gilas Pilipinas had three options for their offensive attack. However, the first two drawn up by coach Tab Baldwin became unavailable after the defensive switch was read by Korea’s coach.
With two seconds left to prevent a five-second violation, Dwight Ramos inbounded the ball to a curling SJ Belangel who made a swing to the right elbow and sank the hail-mary banker off one leg to deliver the upset win for Gilas Pilipinas, 81-78, against the favored Korean team in the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.
The resiliency and mental toughness the young cadets of Gilas showed helped them get back into the ball game in what was once a double-digit lead in the first half.
Ricardo Ratliffe of Korea imposed his will underneath and was able to keep 50-50 possessions in their favor due to his offensive rebounding.
Korea’s floor-spacing also became Gilas’ nightmare in the first half where they were just hitting from all cylinders.
However, coach Baldwin adjusted his defense and tried to slow down the Korean artillery with a zone defense to negate their three-point shooting.
The move paid off and started the Gilas avalanche in the second half where they would manage to tie the game at 52 off Ramos’ layup.
It was a back-and-forth affair in the last frame where an Ange Kouame put-back with 10.5 seconds left was answered with a quick three by the Koreans that deadlocked the slugfest to 78.
Negrense sniper Belangel then took matters into his own hands and created a shot for himself after his defender bit on his fake and leaned to the right to get a clearer attempt of his game-winning rainbow shot.
The win helped Gilas advance to the next round and maintained their no. 1 spot in Group A with a 4-0 record.
