By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas continued to fire blanks, dropping another blowout 86-55 decision against Egypt to wrap up its series of friendlies in the 2nd Doha International Cup at the Qatar University Sports Complex, early Monday, Feb. 17 (Manila time).
Save for a competitive opening frame where the Filipinos took a 19-18 lead, it was all the Pharaohs in the lopsided contest as they began tearing the game apart in the second frame and never looked back since then.
While Egypt’s defense has been great, the pull away was largely due to Gilas failing to execute on the offensive end, suffering another huge drought in the second quarter where the team could only muster nine points.
Everything went downhill for the Filipinos from that point as Egypt kept a double-digit advantage for the majority of the contest. Gilas did cut the disparity within nine, 40-49 in the third frame but that was the closest it could get as Egypt cruised to the 31-point rout.
Justin Brownlee was the lone bright spot for Gilas with 18 points. Carl Tamayo was the Nationals second-best scorer with nine while AJ Edu, Dwight Ramos and Scottie Thompson were all limited to just six.
On the other hand, the Pharaohs simply got everything they wanted on offense with Ehab Amin Saleh torching Gilas with 20 points built on four triples while Amar Zharan, Youssef Wael Aboushousha and Omar Arek Taraby adding 12, 11 and 10, respectively.
Gilas wound up the four-team pocket tournament, which served as springboard for its campaign in the third and final window of the FIBA 2025 Asia Cup qualifiers, with a 1-2 record after a close 74-71 victory over Qatar and then a 75-54 loss to Lebanon.
The Nationals now head back home before immediately flying to Taiwan for their game against Chinese Taipei on Feb. 20. The Filipinos then head for New Zealand for the much-awaited rematch against the Tall Blacks on the 23rd.
