By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas is looking at nothing but a victory in the second window of the FIBA 2027 World Cup Asian qualifiers and it has its first shot at achieving that when it hosts New Zealand at the Mall of Asia Arena on Thursday, Feb. 26.
Tip-off of the match is at 7:30 p.m. with head coach Tim Cone admitting that while the team has set winning as a barometer of success, the Nationals are still up for a daunting task against the powerhouses of the region.
“I’m looking for a win and that is all. We’re not going to sell ourselves short. We are really looking for a win,” said Cone.
“We’ve had some really exciting games. We had some downturns. It’s been really an up and down type of thing but that’s really just it. It’s never smooth but we feel we are at a level that we should be able to compete and that we should give ourselves a chance to win so we are looking to win,” he added.
The last time the two squads met at the MOA Arena was when Gilas finally scored its first win over New Zealand, 93-89 to go 3-0 in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.
Like that instance, the Nationals are hoping to once again take down the Tall Blacks and improve to 3-0 in the Asian qualifiers, although this time without Kai Sotto, who put up 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Good thing, Justin Brownlee who fired 26 points in that game, is expected to spearhead the attack for Gilas while AJ Edu, June Mar Fajardo and newcomer Quentin Millora-Brown will be tasked to man the paint in the absence of the 7-foot-3 big man.
But even without Sotto and New Zealand bringing in old tormentors JORDAN Ngatai, Tohi Smith-Milner, and Taylor Britt, Cone is optimistic that Gilas can hold its ground.
“We feel that we are competitive with them. They are no doubt one of the top teams in our region and always have been but we feel we can compete with them,” said Cone.
“We’ve played New Zealand three times already since we put this team together. We played them at home and originally beat them. We went down to New Zealand and they handled us well,” he added
“And then the Asia Cup, I thought we had the opportunity to win that game. We fell behind but we made a comeback. We had a chance but we did not play well in the last minute and a half,” he furthered.
Cone, however, stressed Gilas must put its best foot forward if it wishes to pull the rug from under the Tall Blacks.
“We can’t play subpar for us to beat them, a team like that and expect to win. We have to be at the top of our game,” he added.
