Olympic dream remains elusive for Gilas

CHANGSHA – In the end, the Philippines’ dream return to the Olympic basketball competition remained a goal too far to reach.

Gilas Pilipinas got to within a win of achieving the mission but came up short in the end, beaten by the formidable home team with its hostile crowd and all their hosting shenanigans.

The Nationals stayed right behind the Chinese for as long as they could before eventually going down in defeat, 67-78, to settle for a second straight runner-up finish in the FIBA Asia Championship.

Nevertheless, the Nationals left the playing court with their heads high, hopeful they made the country proud with their brave showing in nine days of brutal battles here.

As a runner-up, Team Phl has a chance – no matter how daunting it is -- to pursue its Olympic dream in one of three Olympic World Qualifying tourneys next year.

The Chinese reclaimed basketball supremacy in the region and, in the process, booked automatic berth in the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro.

China endured stinging losses in the last FIBA Asia Championship and in the recent Asian Games before shooting back to the top with a squad seasoned by a year-round training at home and abroad.

Gilas had to overcome not just this solid Chinese quintet led by four seven-foot giants but some seemingly surprise tricks by the hosts.

On Friday, the organizers pushed back by 30 minutes Gilas’ semifinal game against Japan, thus, reducing the Filipinos’ recovery time for the gold-medal game.

And in this game day, Gilas’ trip from hotel to the venue was also delayed, denying the Filipinos quality warm-up time.

Still, the Nationals came out firing and set the pace in the first four minutes of the game as they converted six of their first seven field attempts.

That’s before the referees started calling some bum calls against the guest team.

From 10-15 down, the Chinese zoomed ahead on a 12-to-nothing run and they stayed in the lead all the way to the finish.

Dealing Team Phl tremendous beating were big men Zhou Qi and Yi Jianlian with combined 27 points and 29 rebounds, steady guard Guo Ailun with 19 points and gunners Li Gen and Ding Yanyuhang with their combined 5-of-9 three-pointers and combined total of 18 markers.

Andray Blatche, paced well by coach Tab Balwin, was the lone Gilas players to put in double-digit output with 17.

The Filipinos kept the Chinese from pulling away but couldn’t really threaten the host team with their poor 6-of-24 three-point shooting.

On the defensive end, Gilas stuck with the zone defense, peppered with 9-of-24 three-point shooting by the Chinese.

The Gilas zone prevented the Chinese though from dominating the paint. China barely won the rebounding battle at 46-43 and the Filipinos, curiously, outscored the Chinese at the paint, 30-26.  

The scores:

China 78 – Guo 19, Zhou 16, Yi 11, Li 9, Ding 9, Zhou P. 7, Zhao 3, Zhai 2, Wang 2.

Philippines 67 – Blatche 17, Romeo 9, Abueva 9, Castro 8, Norwood 7, De Ocampo 7, Hontiveros 6, Thoss 4, Intal 0, Pingris 0, Ganuelas 0.

Quarterscores: 23-19, 46-35, 60-50, 78-67