By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
It’s a bad day for Philippine sports.
After a silver-medal finish during the 2022 Southeast Asian Games, the Gilas Pilipinas men’s national basketball team squandered another opportunity to redeem themselves and crashed out of the FIBA Asia Cup after a decimating loss against Japan in the knockout stage, 102-81.
The disappointing turn of events marked Gilas’ first loss against Japan’s national basketball team since 2003 in the FIBA Asia Cup and ended their campaign with an unusual 1-3 record.
This is also Japan’s first win against the Philippines in 12 years after beating the Pinoy hoopers in the 2010 edition of the Asian Games while ending its 15-year streak of qualifying in the FIBA Asia Cup quarterfinals.
Japan never lost their composure during the do-or-die game and banked on their waxing hot three-point shooting after sinking a total of 13 treys out of their 35 attempts.
The Japanese were heading into their matchup as the tournament’s no. 1 three-point shooting team and spearheaded its strong start with quick catch-and-shoot treys from superstar guard Yuki Togashi who finished the game with a tournament-high of 18 points.
Gilas quickly found themselves in deep trouble after entering a 16-point hole approaching the second quarter but the duo of Kiefer Ravena and Bobby Ray Parks Jr. answered the call and outdueled the Japanese guards.
Aside from their scoring efficiency, the Filipinos displayed a better interior defense led by TNT Tropang Giga’s Poy Erram but weren’t enough to pull them within single digits until the end of the game.
NBA star Yuta Watanabe also shot the lights out and schooled Gilas’ defenders on his way to an efficient 15-point outing alongside nine rebounds and three assists.
Japan continued to steamroll in the second half and started to gain contributions from savvy big man Luke Evans, capitalizing on the mismatches he set up against Geo Chiu, Carl Tamayo, and Kevin Quiambao who just couldn’t stop him at the post.
Following the loss, Gilas head coach Chot Reyes was quick to address his apologies to the entire nation and vowed they will come back stronger in the next international tournaments.
