Gilas wakes up in third quarter to blast Qatar

MANILA, Philippines — Team Philippines fired bricks in the first half of a game that lacked the luster and the  roar and cheers  of the sixth man, but gained its composure in time and played true to form in the third quarter to stop Qatar in its tracks and claim an easy 92-81 win and firm up its FIBA World Cup bid  at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night.

The Nationals churned out a superb second half to make up for their woeful game in the first 20 minutes of play, and stayed at third place in Group F in the FIBA Asia WC qualifiers on their 11-point drubbing of the Qataris before a little less than 100 souls and over 15,000 empty seats  at the Big Dome.

 “It’s kind of surreal. It felt really weird you’re playing in your home country, in the home stadium and there’s nobody cheering for you. I think it affected us,” said national coach Yeng Guiao.

But after a while, the Nationals got used to the atmosphere in this closed-door game, and got to make the necessary adjustments to make the crucial turnaround that carried Team Phl to a fifth win against three losses through the fourth window of the FIBAWC eliminator.

Team Phl closed in on Iran (6-2) which dropped a 56-70 loss to Japan (4-4) over in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Australia sustained its rampage and virtually clinched a berth in the 2019 China world joust on a 94-41 rout of Kazakhstan that jacked up its record to 7-1.

The Nationals applied a pressing defense and ran at every opportunity on offense to overcome an early 17-point deficit and get back on track following back-to-back losses to Australia and Iran.

Alex Cabagnot and Japeth Aguilar scored 16 points each to pace the Nationals who would not allow themselves to lose the game.

“Alam namin mahirap matalo sa sariling bahay natin,” said Beau Belga, also a catalyst for Team Phl in this game with11 points, six rebounds, three assists, three blocks and one steal in 18 minutes of action.

The national coach acknowledged the great effort of his team, saying “they really didn’t want to lose.”

“The first half was just really bad, especially the shooting percentage from the three-point area. To think that we have the best shooters in the land, it’s an aberration, hangover from the Iran game, nagtuloy-tuloy ang alat,” said Guiao on their 1-of-15 clip from beyond the arc in the first two quarters.

“Meanwhile, as big as Qatar was, I felt what really gave them the lead in the first half was their three-point shooting (7-of-13). It’s not really their size, it’s their incredible shooting,” Guiao added.

The scores:

Philippines 92 – Aguilar 16, Cabagnot 16, Pringle 13, Belga 11, Lee 8, Wright 6, Lassiter 5, Sangalang 5, Erram 4, Thompson 3, Taulava 3, Norwood 2.

Qatar 81 – Mohammed MY 26, Al-Rayes 17, Ngombo 17, Khalid 10, Mohammed MH 4, Abdelbaset 3, Gueye 3, Abdelhaleem 1, Avdic 0, Lashin 0.

Quarterscores: 15-26, 39-52, 67-64, 92-81.