Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes marveled on the staff’s protection because the nationals pulled off a 75-63 payback victory towards Senegal on Sunday night time within the 2023 Heyuan WUS International Basketball Tournament in China.
With the Filipinos placing premium on their protection, they have been in a position to enhance to 2-1 within the pocket event aimed to assist them put together for the upcoming 2023 FIBA World Cup slated on August 25.
“All throughout our preparations, our focus really was to improve our defense. Even in the first half, even when we were down, we only gave up 39 points,” Reyes stated within the post-game interview.
“And we thought it was defense that kept us close when our offense was struggling. Even in the third quarter.”
CJ Perez led the best way for Gilas with 14 factors whereas younger weapons AJ Edu and Dwight Ramos chipped in 13 and 12 markers apiece.
The win was a revenge of kinds for the Philippines because it fell to the identical staff final Friday once they fired virtually clean within the payoff interval, and solely Edu and June Mar Fajardo have been in a position to convert subject targets in that body.
They then made certain to bounce again of their second assembly towards world no. 37 Senegal and hope to proceed the momentum once they eye for a repeat win towards Iran on Monday night time.
“That’s what defense does, if you play good defense all throughout, it allows you to stay in the game. Hopefully, when you get hot this is what happens,” Reyes added.
“In the fourth quarter, we finally hit some shots. We made some offensive adjustments and we were able to get some good looks. But without our defense, that wouldn’t have not happened.”
—Bea Micaller/JKC, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
