Short-handed not short-hearted

Gilas battled at the FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah with a short deck and a big heart. For five games, coach Tim Cone’s squad displayed toughness under pressure and fought against all odds. Despite a crippled lineup, Gilas advanced to the quarterfinals, improving on its ninth-place finish in the previous FIBA Asia Cup in Jakarta three years ago.

Cone never played a full complement. Jamie Malonzo sat out the first three games and saw action sparingly the rest of the way, averaging 5.9 minutes. Calvin Oftana struggled with a severe ankle sprain, did what he could in averaging 7.7 minutes over the first three games then was benched in the last two. CJ Perez was also hobbled, skipping the second and fifth outings and averaging 5.0 minutes the other three games.

Defending the three-pointer was a challenge. Gilas gave up 11.6 threes on average in five games while knocking down seven an outing. That’s a difference of 12 points, a huge handicap. Shooting less than 20 percent from three were Chris Newsome (.125), Oftana (.154) and Scottie Thompson (.167). Only Justin Brownlee (.483) and Kevin Quiambao (.444) shot better than 40 percent from deep. It’s not as if Gilas didn’t try to convert from distance. Gilas attempted more threes than opponents in four of five games except the shots were consistently inconsistent. For the tournament, Gilas hit 30.4 percent from three. Against Chinese-Taipei and Australia, Gilas fired less than 30 percent.

Only three players averaged in double figure points – Brownlee (20.6), Dwight Ramos (16.8) and Quiambao (12). AJ Edu was the team’s leading rebounder with nine boards a game. He recorded Gilas’ only double-double, collecting 17 points and 12 rebounds against Saudi Arabia. Brownlee, 37, did a lot of heavy lifting for Gilas as usual, averaging 33.8 minutes. Ramos, 26, led the team in minutes, logging 35.2 a game but he’s nine years younger than JB. Gilas played five games in nine days. Brownlee scored 37 points in 36:40 minutes against New Zealand but in the next game against Iraq, shot eight in 32:57 then 29 in 40:55 against Saudi and 10 in 33:34 against Australia. It was humanly difficult for JB to unravel his heroics in back-to-back games. He sank the monster three to send the Saudi game into OT but had little left to fend off Australia’s physical defense.

It will never be easy to engage the likes of Australia and New Zealand with a short rotation. The Boomers and Tall Blacks aren’t just big but they’re also quick. Losing to Chinese-Taipei in the first game was a stinging blow. Gilas fell behind by 11 in the first quarter then outscored Chinese-Taipei, 71-68 until the end. Chinese-Taipei sprang a surprise by unleashing Robert Hinton and Ying Chun Chen who didn’t play against Gilas in the last Asia Cup qualifiers. They combined for 48 points in Chinese-Taipei’s 95-87 win. Brownlee scored 19 points and logged 24:48, his least in the competition, before fouling out.

Because of Gilas’ limited practice time, Cone is left with no choice but to stick with a tight nucleus for familiarity purposes. He can’t continue to teach his system to a bunch of new recruits coming from a revolving door. Keeping a core pool has its drawbacks, however. Looking at the big picture, Gilas has to be younger, bigger, quicker and deadlier from three for the future. Not a single Australian player is 30 or over while Gilas has six in that age bracket, four at least 35.