‘Lucky’ Gilas fired up vs Korea

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin didn’t need a lengthy motivational speech to fire up his young charges heading to their second matchup with South Korea in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers today.

He just had to remind them of Korean mentor Cho Sang Hyun’s remarks after the Filipinos pulled off an 81-78 stunner behind the last-gasp triple of SJ Belangel at the start of Group A hostilities last Wednesday.

“We’ve already heard that the Korean coach felt we were lucky to win the game and frankly, I think that’s pretty rich of any coach to walk off a loss and claim it was good luck on the part of the opponent,” said Baldwin.

“So we will make sure that is highlighted and I’m sure that will give our players a little bit of extra incentive and I don’t expect we’ll be going out there to make friends on Sunday,” he added.

Cho described Belangel’s winner as a “lucky shot” that they “could do nothing about.”

Now, the Filipinos are determined more than ever to prove it was no “fluke” in the return engagement set at 3 p.m. at the AUF Gym in Angeles, Pampanga.

“I know they’re going to come out strong, trying to show our win was just a fluke so we have to come out stronger and prove to them we’re not someone to take lightly,” said Dwight Ramos.

“We’re young but we’ve got that heart, puso, so that’s what we have to show, and we’ll play our hardest,” he added.

The Philippines seeks to make it two in a row after breaking a five-game losing streak to Korea since 2014.

Meanwhile, China delivered a strong finishing kick to complete a come-from-behind win over Japan yesterday, 90-84, and stay unbeaten in three games in Group B.

After playing catch up, the Chinese cranked it up and wrested control from the Japanese for good with a fierce 17-4 windup.

In a Group A game, Korea demolished lowly Thailand, 120-53,  to warm up for today’s showdown with Gilas.