By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone did not mince words in expressing his disappointment in the Nationals’ 27-point drubbing at the hands of Australia at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday, Mar. 1.
It was actually a tale of two halves for the Gilas in the 93-66 loss as after holding its ground in the first half where they only trailed by five, 38-33, at the intermission, the Nationals completely collapsed in the last two quarters.
“It was a very painful one. It was a very painful second half. Painful to be a part of, painful to watch,” said an obviously dejected Cone at the end of the game.
“Very, very painful here at home. Just doing that in front of the whole crowd was tough,” he added.
Buoyed by a tough defensive stand through the first two quarters, Gilas actually kept it close until the third frame where the Boomers’ three-point shots began falling.
A couple of miscues on the other end coupled with the Nationals struggling to make their own shots, Cone felt Gilas allowed the game to slip away from its hands.
“We did everything we wanted defensively. We held guys down. But when they started to stretch the lead a little bit, got some open threes, and a couple turnovers on our part, I think we just kind of deflated and lost our energy,” recalled Cone.
“We went down by five at halftime, but we felt we had a good shot. We came out in the third quarter, made a turnover right off the bat. And they turned it into a three-point play, and suddenly they were off to the races.”
Australia exploded for 55 in the second half, led by Elijah Pepper who exploded for 28 points. Cone tried deploying Scottie Thompson and Chris Newsom to put a body on the Aussie guard but to no avail
Justin Brownlee, who finally broke out of his shooting slump, did everything he could to keep the hosts in striking distance but his 20 points weren’t simply enough to carry the Nationals.
“It was hard to chase those guys. They’re the number five team in the world, and it’s amazing that the players, that they can just bring over and be that good. We had Pepper on our sights, but we couldn’t stop Pepper,” Cone admitted.
