By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas thrilling 95-88 victory over Saudi Arabia in the qualification for the quarterfinals did not come without any casualty after CJ Perez sustained what looked like an ankle injury.
The national team backup guard hurt his ankle just 70 seconds after entering the game following a scramble for the loose ball at the 5:52 mark of the second quarter.
Television replays showed a Saudi Arabian player losing balance and falling onto Perez’s ankle causing it to tweak. The veteran guard immediately held on to the right foot as he grimaced in pain.
He had to be helped off the floor and was immediately brought to the hospital according to head coach Tim Cone.
“The only bad part of all of this is the injury to CJ. Looks like a bad injury. He is in the hospital right now. We don’t know the extent of it but it did not look good,” said Cone who had to make do with the 10 remaining players on his bench.
“I’m not going to pretend to be a doctor and tell you what it is but it was not a good injury so our prayers are with him,” added the veteran coach.
Gilas, however, is keeping its finger crossed that Perez did not sustain any serious injury especially that the Nationals already played without Calvin Oftana against Saudi Arabia.
The TNT forward sat out the game against the host after also tweaking his ankle in the previous game against Iraq.
Fortunately for Gilas, Kevin Quiambao stepped up big in the absence of Perez and Oftana, firing 17 points – including two big triples in the extension.
Dwight Ramos also had 13 points and 10 rebounds while AJ Edu chipped in 17 and 11 to provide support for Justin Brownlee, who had 29 points – none bigger than the triple he buried with 3.7 seconds left in regulation to send the game to an overtime.
Still, the injuries are surely becoming a cause of concern for Gilas especially heading into the quarterfinals game against the defending champion Australia.
