ROAD GETS TOUGHER FOR GILAS

MANILA, Philippines — There were some rough patches in Gilas’ 95-71 win over Guam in the FIBA World Cup Asia qualifiers at the Blue Eagle Gym last Monday. Gilas blew a 27-point second quarter lead that was razed to nine twice, gave up five more offensive rebounds, had three more turnovers, yielded five more triples and allowed Jericho Cruz and Takumi Simon a combined 50 points.

But the bright spots were Gilas’ interior defense, balanced offense, unselfish play and a high-octane pace that delivered a 22-3 advantage in fastbreak points. In the two wins over Guam, Gilas averaged 24 assists and 14.5 turnovers for a 1.6:1 ratio. Like in the first game, coach Tim Cone deployed all 12 players in the rematch. The deep rotation will be useful against bigger and slower opponents.

The road will only get tougher in the next windows. Gilas will face New Zealand on Feb. 26 and Australia on March 1, both at the MOA Arena in the second window. Then, it’s on the road for Gilas in the third window, engaging New Zealand on July 3 and Australia on July 6. The top three finishers of four groups will advance to the second round of three more windows on Aug. 27-31, Nov. 26-30 and Feb. 25-March 1, 2027. Gilas’ hope is Kai Sotto will be back in harness from the second window onwards.

Gilas, Australia and New Zealand will step out of Group A to form a reconstituted bracket in the second round with the top three Group C finishers, expected to be Iran, Jordan and Syria. The top three finishers of two second round groups will book tickets to the FIBA World Cup in Doha on Aug. 27-Sept. 12, 2027. A ticket will also be awarded to host Qatar and another ticket to the fourth placer with a higher quotient from the two second round groups. In the World Cup, the highest Asian finisher, excluding likely qualifiers Australia and New Zealand, will represent Asia at the 2028 LA Olympics. Either Australia or New Zealand will represent Oceania in the Olympics. For Gilas, the interim goal is to qualify for Doha and the ultimate goal is to become the highest Asian placer in the World Cup to mark the Philippines’ return to Olympic basketball after 56 years.

2025-12-02T16:31:36Z