Gilas Pilipinas Basketball

Coming off a narrow 83-76 defeat against Serbia the night before, most expected Gilas Pilipinas to give a competitive fight anew against world no. 19 Dominican Republic at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade.

The national team did so in the first half, leading 41-39 entering the break and enjoying an eight-point lead at one point.

However, the second half proved to be a rude awakening, as Gilas was totally outclassed by the Dominican Republic was they walked away with a resounding 94-67 victory.

“It was a tough game for us today. I don’t think the first half was indicative of really what the Dominican Republic is all about,” head coach Tab Baldwin said after the disappointing loss.

“We know we’re a tough, talented basketball team and in the second half they came out very physical, they came out to make a statement against us and they certainly did.”

The decisive turnaround was led by Victor Liz and Gelvis Solano, who starred in a morale-shattering 24-2 run bridging the third and fourth quarters that sucked the energy and rhythm out of the young Gilas team.

In the end, Baldwin couldn’t describe the deflating experience other than the Dominican Republic played several notches higher.

“We did not stand up to the pressure, we did not execute what we can execute, what we should execute under the pressure, it was a very disappointing second half for us,” he said. “No excuses, not much to say about it other than we were outplayed, out-coached, out-gunned.”

Gilas was out-rebounded, 39-32, and gave up 11 offensive boards which led to 15 second chance points. The Dominican Republic also pounced on every occasion, scoring 23 fastbreak points all-game long.

“You got to give Dominican Republic credit for they way that they played and doing what they had to do to win and win convincingly. All I can do is say that we are disappointed and we have many things to learn from this,” the American-Kiwi mentor added.

As the Philippine team head back home and prepare for the FIBA Asia Cup in August, Baldwin emphasized that garnerning lessons from such high-level games remain a positive takeaway for the squad.

“We will now head home with lessons in our pocket, it’s sort of a mixed campaign here with a decent performance against Serbia and a disappointing performance tonight,” Baldwin shared.

“But these young men will work hard together, will take this on the chin, and we will try to learn our lessons and build for the future.”

Having stressed his reluctance to accept moral victories during the Serbia defeat, the 63-year-old coach also made it clear no one was proud of the embarrassing result suffered against the Carribean nation.

Baldwin added the loss was more a result of Gilas’ mental toughness being challenged, instead of just merely being bullied by the more physically-imposing team.

“I think our mental toughness was really questioned tonight, and that’s something we have to work on and something we have to train a little bit tougher,” he said. “We have to be a little bit better prepared for what some of these international teams are going to bring against you … Unfortunately, we weren’t up to the standard tonight. But we will learn.”

Written by Levi Verora Jr.
Photos from FIBA