Panlilio: Gilas journey continues

MANILA, Philippines - Two painful defeats against bigger, better teams are enough to convince the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas that the country is still learning to compete in the elite level.

“It was very tough to compete on a global level,” said SBP vice president Al Panlilio moments after Gilas took an 89-80 defeat against New Zealand the other night at the MOA Arena.

The loss meant the end of Gilas Pilipinas’ “Road to Rio” campaign.

Gilas lost to France in Tuesday’s opener, 93-84, in another tough match, and hoped for the best against New Zealand to keep its Olympics hopes alive and kicking.

But Gilas failed to dish out the performance it needed to beat New Zealand, which at No. 21 in the world is ranked seven rungs higher than the Philippines.

France, with NBA players like Tony Parker and Boris Diaw in its roster, is the highest ranked team in this six-nation event at No. 5.

Panlilio was still glued to his ringside seat moments after the loss to New Zealand.

The chief patron of the Gilas program, SBP president and Smart/PLDT big boss Manny V. Pangilinan, was no longer around.

“I guess we’re still a long way being at that level,” added Panlilio, also the CEO of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of this Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The unceremonious exit for the host team pushed the ambitious and expensive Gilas program back to the drawing board.

“We didn’t play our best basketball tonight,” said coach Tab Baldwin.

“But we competed well in this tournament. We have to sit back and analyze why it didn’t happen. We have to try and fix it again,” he said.

“Gilas will have to live and fight another day,” said the Kiwi coach. He said losing to ranked teams like France and New Zealand is part of the learning process.

“We got to take a bunch of beatings at this level to learn how to play at this level,” said Baldwin, who started comparing Gilas to the other teams that had a dozen tune-up matches beforehand.

“And we had five. We need more of this. This is the pathway and trust me there is no other pathway,” said Baldwin.

Panlilio, reportedly being groomed to take over the SBP if and when MVP steps down as president, said they will not stop trying.

The program will continue despite failure to live up to promises and expectations.

“Of course, it’s disappointing. We worked very hard to host this tournament. But it was really tough. We faced two very tough teams,” he said.

“We faced France last night and New Zealand tonight,” said Panlilio.

The star-studded event, which cost millions to host, moves on to its last couple of days with the Philippines out of contention for the lone slot to next month’s Rio Olympics.