MANILA – After suffering a horrendous loss to Italy on Saturday, Gilas Pilipinas will try to keep its 2019 FIBA World Cup hopes alive. It tangles with powerhouse Serbia tonight at the Foshan International Sports and Cultural Center in Foshan, China.
A defeat against the FIBA World Cup favorites in their 7:30 p.m. encounter will put them out of contention of moving into the second round even if it beats Angola in their final Group D match on Wednesday.
However, pulling off an upset over Serbia is easier said than done for the national men’s basketball team especially following the former’s 105-59 annihilation of Angola on Saturday.
Serbia’s NBA players Bogdan Bogdanovic (Sacramento Kings) and Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) were astounding in their World Cup opener win with the former tallying 24 points and the latter adding 14.
On the part of Gilas, disastrous would be an understatement in describing its 108-62 defeat to the Italians. Almost everyone struggled on offense and defense.
The silver lining on the part of head coach Joseller “Yeng” Guiao’s crew was the emergence of PBA rookies Jaymar Perez and Robert Bolick Jr. with their tenacity on both ends of the floor.
“We came to this game knowing we were the underdogs but we would’ve wanted to play it in a better way and even if we lost we would’ve wanted to play better,” said Guiao. “Our problem was we fed their runs with our turnovers.”
He added: “If there’s any positive from this game, it’s that our young guys played hard. CJ played his heart out, same with Robert Bolick. So that’s something positive we can pick up from a game like this.”/PN
