CONE: IT'S THE FIRST TIME I FELT GOOD LOSING
The Philippine men's basketball team's travel plans back to Manila will have to wait a little while after it advanced to the crossover semifinals at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament Thursday night (Manila time) at the Arena Riga in Latvia.
Gilas Pilipinas actually lost to Georgia, 92-94, at the close of the group stage but the Filipinos still made the final four, thanks to its 89-80 victory against the host team early Thursday.
Head coach Tim Cone admitted they had their tickets ready to head back to the Philippines, noting how bad the team started against Georgia in the first half that saw Gilas Pilipinas trail at 20-40.
"We have our tickets to leave tomorrow (Friday), so we already have the tickets for reservations to go and leave tomorrow. But I guess we have to move it back a little bit. That's how surprised we are to be here and talk to you guys," Cone told media men during the post-game interview, shortly after the 37th ranked Philippine put up a solid fight and nearly pulled the rug from under the 23rd ranked Georgia.
"Like we've been saying, it's the first time I felt good losing, and I just really want to complement our guys," he added.
Cone admitted being down 20 points in the first half would have easily been panic time for Gilas, especially when the team lost young slotman Kai Sotto to injury.
The 7-foot-3 Sotto appeared to have hurt his rib after colliding with Georgia's Joe Thomasson with still 6:42 to go in the second period. He left the game and was not fielded back in.
"They (Gilas players) went down 20, and that could have been easy panic time, but they worked their way back into the game right through the fourth quarter. But we were down 20 by various points of the game," Cone said.
"One little streak here and there, we could be down 30 and then we're going home and we're using those tickets tomorrow."
The American mentor commended the Gilas Pilipinas players for their resilience, noting the key minutes provided by young bigs Carl Tamayo and Kevin Quiambao as well as veteran big man Japeth Aguilar in the absence of Sotto.
"They really showed their resilience when we lost Kai Sotto early. We never got him back in the game and he's in the hospital checking out his rib for X-ray. We don't have any news on that yet, on how far he'll be able to go forward," he said.
Gilas ended in a three-way tie with Latvia and Georgia at 1-1. But the Philippines managed to secure the No. 2 seed, behind world No. 6 Latvia owing to superior tiebreak points against Georgia.
For Georgia to advance and oust the Philippines, it needed to beat Gilas Pilipinas by more than 18 points.
2024-07-04T15:28:04Z dg43tfdfdgfd