GILAS Pilipinas tries to pick up the pieces from a tough loss to New Zealand and focus all its attention against Australia this Sunday in the second window of the FIBA World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Still smarting from a narrow 66-69 defeat at the hands of the Tall Blacks, the Filipinos, who expect another full house crowd to cheer for them, clash with the Group A-leading Boomers at 7:30 p.m.
Coach Tim Cone admitted that they can’t afford to dwell on what other people might say was a “near win” against New Zealand, knowing that the bottomline is, Gilas will have to get the W against Australia, which is ranked sixth in the world by FIBA.
“I hate to say this but we’ll continue to learn as we move forward,” said Cone, whose team had a chance to send the game into overtime, but Dwight Ramos missed a potential overtime-sending three-point attempt near the half court line that allowed the Tall Blacks to escape with the win.
“I just don't want to get into the ‘we almost won, we almost did that.’ We don’t want to play that game with ourselves. We wanna win games,” he stressed.
Australia already booked a seat into the second round following its third straight win in the Asian Qualifiers, thanks to its 93-80 dumping of Guam last Thursday.
Gilas, will try to follow suit and secure its spot in the next round, but will have to beat a tall, physical Australian side that executes like a well-oiled machine.
A win by Gilas, coupled by another loss by Guam, which will also clash with New Zealand on Sunday, gives the Philippines the safe passage to the second round, as per FIBA.
Only the top three teams from the group advance to the next round, where they will face the top three teams from Group C, which includes world No. 26 Iran, No. 38 Jordan, No. 72 Syria, and No. 85 Iraq.
The Filipinos scratched, clawed and engaged the Tall Blacks in a physical battle, something Cone already expected.
And he’s going to expect a lot more of that against the Boomers, who have beaten the Filipinos soundly in their last five meetings, and hold a 6-1 record all-time dating back to October 1, 1964 in the pre-Olympic basketball tournament, as per FIBA records.
In fact, the only time the Philippines beat Australia was a 101-100 narrow escape act during the classification round of the 1976 FIBA World Championships (now FIBA World Cup) in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Justin Brownlee is coming off his lowest output ever in a FIBA tournament of just four points, going only 2-of-10 overall while missing all for his three-point attempts against New Zealand.
But the Gilas naturalized player and well-loved Barangay Ginebra import is expected to bounce back strongly against an Australian side that manhandled the Philippines, 84-60, in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Cone said execution will be important, while hopeful that the locals will be able to play through their unique skill sets against the Boomers.
AJ Edu and Quentin Millora-Brown played gutsily against the Tall Blacks, and Cone is hopeful the two young front court players will be able to duplicate their efforts against the Boomers.