By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas is gunning for nothing but the gold medal in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup though the team is keeping its focus right now on getting ample preparations with roughly a week left before the continental event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Aug. 5.
National team head coach Tim Cone said the team is flying to the west Asian country not only with the intent of surpassing Gilas ninth place finish in the 2022 edition but also to actually win it all.
“Our goal is to win a gold medal. I mean, that’s our goal. We’re going to go out there and try to win a gold medal. Will we? I’m not sure, but that’s certainly our goal,” said Cone after Gilas’ 103-98 victory over the Macau Black Bears on Monday, July 28.
“That’s not what we’re focused on, though. We’re focused on every day. You know, what we do every day. We’re focused right now on the first game we play. And beyond that, there’s nothing,” he added.
While Cone has already set the target for his crew, he is refusing to get too much ahead of themselves, knowing full well that the team still has a lot to fine tune if they are to reach that goal.
And that was exactly what was seen during the game against the Black Bears. It was a tale of the two halves where the Nationals trailed by as many as 21 in the first two quarters but showed the tenacity on the defensive end and a much more fluid offense to turn things around in the second half.
‘We’re going to make some nice plays. We’re going to make some nice three-point shots. We’re going to do some nice things out there, make some nice passes, but what is going to win for us is our defense,’ said Cone.
After allowing the Black Bears to erupt for 63 points in the first half, Gilas tightened up on their defensive screws and forced the visiting team to consecutive turnovers that fueled a huge 15-2 third quarter run.
Their offensive rhythm followed suit with Justin Brownlee firing 15 of his 32 points in the final frame to bring Gilas home.
“What is going to win for us is our defense and that’s what we’re going to hang our hat on and that’s what we’ve constantly talked about since we’ve been together and that’s why it was so disappointing to go out and give up 63 points in that first half,’ pointed out Cone.
“But as disappointed as we were in that first half, I’m just really proud of the guys for flipping the script. We were night and day in the second half. Guys defended extremely well, got us back in the game,” he added.
