By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas’ quest to end a 40-year title drought will have to hurdle an even longer dry spell against a team that invoked ugly memories of an infamous bench-clearing brawl back in 2018.
The Nationals’ fighting heart and unwavering resolve will be put to a stern test against two-time defending champion Australia – a team that the Philippines has not beaten in the last 51 years – in the quarterfinals of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Aug. 13.
The game is set at 7 p.m. (Manila time) at the King Abdullah Sports City, the same venue where Justin Brownlee, carrying the hopes of an entire nation on his shoulders, put together yet another clutch performance to help Gilas overcome Saudi Arabia, 95-88 in overtime.
But the Filipinos cannot get a little too high as the win rewarded them a clash against the Boomers, who have been tearing teams apart, not only in the ongoing edition of the continental tiff but ever since it joined the Asia Cup back in 2017.
Australia has never tasted defeat in the quadrennial meet, boasting a 15-0 record including the 3-0 slate it had in the group stage where it won by an average margin of 25.6 points.
In head-to-head matchup against Gilas, the Boomers have won five of their last six meetings – the latest of which was the infamous basketbrawl at the Philippine Arena where Australia came away with an 89-53 win after the game was stopped due to the Nationals lacking eligible players to continue.
The only win came way back 1974 when the RP team led by Sonny Jaworski and Ramon Fernandez edged Australia, 101-100.
There’s no doubt that winning against Australia would be a huge upset for Gilas according to head coach Tim Cone.
“We know that they are pretty much the number one seed in the tournament. For us to beat them is going to be an upset,” said Cone as Gilas improved to a 2-2 overall record in the tournament following a slow start that saw the Nationals suffer frustrating losses to Chinese Taipei and New Zealand.
“Winning this game tonight, beating Iraq, winning this game the way we did tonight, has supplied us with some momentum. Hopefully we can carry that against Australia,” he added.
A Brownlee-led team has developed a habit of ending dry spells though – evident when it scored the first PH win against a European team when it defeated Latvia and when it took down New Zealand for the first time in eight years, both last year.
“We didn’t expect to play them this early in the tournament, losing our first two games, got us here. We figured that if we’re going to do something special in this tournament, you have to go through Australia at some point. It’s here in front of us,” said Cone.
Brownlee will need all the help he could get from the rest of the undermanned Gilas, which is expecting to miss the services of CJ Perez and Calvin Oftana due to injuries.
Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu must bring their A-games alongside Chris Newsome, June Mar Fajardo and Carl Tamayo if they wish to pull the rug from under the Boomers.
Australia has four players scoring in double-figure so far led by Jaylin Galloway, who is averaging 18 points per contest
