Young, undermanned Gilas looking to learn from 46-point beating from Tall Blacks
MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas was at the wrong end of a blowout on Thursday after losing to New Zealand, 60-106, in their FIBA World Cup Asia qualifiers game in EventFinda Stadium in Auckland.
A fairly young squad that was also marred with injuries, the Nationals were stuck struggling against the well-oiled Tall Blacks.
Coach Nenad Vucinic acknowledged that his wards were outplayed in a lot of aspects in the game, as they fell to 1-2 in the qualifiers.
"Very tough night for this young team. We have come across a Tall Blacks team that is playing with high intensity and very good execution," said Vucinic after the game.
"We struggled to contain them in that part of the game, in the physicality, the intensity and the speed. And we struggled, really, offensively, to get things going," he added.
It was a wire-to-wire victory for New Zealand, who flexed their might in almost all parameters in the stat sheet.
The most apparent differences were shooting percentage and points scored off of turnovers. New Zealand shot a healthy 50% from the field while Gilas finished with a 33.87% shooting percentage.
They also converted 19 turnovers by the Gilas side into a whopping 32 points. Gilas only managed two points off of New Zealand's 10 turnovers.
Crashing the boards, the Filipinos were also outrebounded, 47-33, and outscored in the paint, 52-20.
Still, Vucinic believes there is a silver lining in the brutal loss as the Tall Blacks were able to give Gilas a parameter on what they should work to achieve.
"So, it is a good thing for the young team, for the young players to understand what level we need to be at, to play at a high level in international basketball," said Vucinic.
"Tall Blacks have dominated us in all aspects of the game, and it's something that, you know, it will help us to get better in the future," he added.
Gilas hopes to return to their winning ways when they face Indina on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
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