MANILA, Philippines — Australia’s first game back at Philippine home soil no longer had any trace of the tension that escalated into a full-blown brawl against the Philippine team nearly eight years ago.
In fact, shortly after the world no. 6 ranked basketball squad scored a dominant 93-66 shellacking of Gilas Pilipinas on Sunday night, Boomers coach John Peter Rillie thanked the thousands of Filipino fans for warmly accepting them at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
“It was a terrific atmosphere, that was a good regional FIBA game,” Rillie told media men during the post-game press conference Sunday night.
“Thank you to the Manila community for coming out and supporting the game the way they did, and I’m happy my team played as well as they did.”
Hearing the Australian men’s basketball coach talk with a lot positivity puts to rest the ugly brawl that marred the Boomers and the Filipinos’ 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers in their July 2, 2018 match held at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
The 2018 basket brawl saw a total of 13 players ejected. FIBA also handed down suspensions to the Boomers led by Daniel Kickert, Thon Maker, and Chris Goulding, while the Gilas side included Calvin Abueva, Roger Pogoy, Jio Jalalon, Carl Bryan Cruz, Jayson Castro, Terrence Romeo, Troy Rosario, Andray Blatche, Japeth Aguilar and Matthew Wright, along with head coach Chot Reyes and his assistant Jong Uichico.
Holdovers from that 2018 incident in Sunday’s match included June Mar Fajardo, Rosario and Uichico for Gilas, while Nick Kay was the lone remnant for Australia.
The Filipinos, now mentored by Tim Cone, engaged the Boomers in a nip-and-tuck first half, and trailed by just five points, 33-38 at halftime.
But with Elijah Pepper and Tanner Krebs combining for nine three-point shots, Australia outscored the Philippines, 55-33 in the last two quarters on the way to a 27-point victory.
“We knew the Philippines would come out really hard at the start of the game due to their game against New Zealand, so we needed to weather that storm,” shared Rillie, the concurrent Perth Wildcats head coach in the Australian National Basketball League.