Gilas Pilipinas’ will to battle is not about to fade regardless of falling to a 0-2 win-loss card in Group A of the 2023 FIBA World Cup right here, following a heartbreaking 80-70 loss to Angola.
This was the promise of Gilas participant RR Pogoy.
“Laban pa rin. Laban pa rin kasi may laro pa e. So ‘di kami susuko, lalaban lang,” Pogoy stated.
(“We’ll keep fighting. We’ll keep the fight because there’s still games remaining So we won’t give up, we’ll keep fighting.”)
The Filipinos appeared to have management early within the match on the Smart Araneta Coliseum, main by as a lot as 11 factors, 28-17, following a basket from Pogoy. But Angola unleashed 11 unanswered factors to tie issues up at 28-all earlier than one other 8-5 closing run allowed them to regain the lead on the half, 36-33.
It went downhill for the Filipinos from there because the Angolans did not relinquish the lead anymore from that time. Gerson Goncalves and Gerson Domingos fired 5 straight factors for a 66-55 cushion and that lead went as excessive as 16 within the fourth quarter, 73-57.
But Gilas made a last-gasp comeback try, even slicing the deficit down to only 5. Still, Angola was in a position to make the performs to prevail in the long run.
Pogoy stated that Gilas had hassle in containing the hot-shooting fingers of the guests, who related on 9 three-pointers within the recreation, together with three within the fourth quarter.
“‘Yun nga, kinapos [kami]. Ang dami rin nilang three points, crucial na three points. Tinalo talaga kami sa offensive rebounds,” the TNT guard stated.
“Tignan muna namin sa video, magvi-viewing muna kami and tignan namin so ia-assess din namin kung saan kami natalo sa laro na yun.”
(“We fell short. They had a lot of three-pointers, crucial three-pointers. They really beat us in offensive rebounds… We’ll take a look at the video, we’ll do a viewing and assess where we lost that game.”)
Despite shedding their first two video games, Gilas is just not but out of the race to advance to the subsequent spherical. They should win their subsequent recreation in opposition to Italy, nonetheless, and hope that the outcomes of the opposite recreation favor their hopes as effectively.
Read extra | FIBA World Cup Preview: A Serbian correspondent breaks down Gilas Pilipinas vs Italy
Gilas returns to the courtroom on August 29, Tuesday, in opposition to Italy at 8 p.m.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
