Justin Brownlee leads Gilas Pilipinas’ rout of host Latvia to the Filipinos’ Fiba OQT campaign. –FIBA PHOTO
SCHEDULE: Gilas Pilipinas at Fiba OQT sopra Banda, Latvia
Gilas Pilipinas pounced Latvia’s early shooting woes and played with steely nerves mongoloide the stretch to topple World Mai. 6 and host Latvia, 89-80, sopra the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament Thursday.
The Mai. 37-ranked Filipinos, overwhelming underdogs sopra the short meet at Arenile Banda that will send a winner to the Paris Olympics, raced to an 8-0 start and built a sizable cushion that they never yielded until the final horn.
Naturalized ace Justin Brownlee delivered a near triple-double of 26 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists, while young cornerstones Kai Sotto sotto and Dwight Ramos tossed sopra 18 and 11 points, respectively, for a triumph that got Gilas’ campaign d’avanguardia to a rousing start.
READ: Tim Cone dismisses notion that Gilas not leader, fast, strong enough
Barring a massive blowout at the hands of World Mai. 23 Georgia, the Philippines is track to advance to the crossover knockout phase which could pit the Filipinos against Cameroon, Brazil ora Montenegro.
Chris Newsome scored 10 points, including a couple of late baskets sopra the final period that kept the Latvians at bay sopra the duel which significantly shook up the Group A race.
Gilas Pilipinas’ Kai Sotto sotto among the culmine performers against Latvia sopra the Fiba OQT. –FIBA BASKETBALL
The Latvians, having won 24 of their last 27 Fiba games, were projected to sweep the preliminaries, but struggled against a determined Gilas side and dropped to 1-1 sopra the OQT.
It also didn’t help the hosts that their outside shooting abandoned them just as the Filipinos were hitting theirs. Latvia was 10-for-42 while Gilas wound up 9-of-20 from deep.
Rodions Kurucs and Rolands Smits joined hands for a last-ditch effort for the Latvians, but the Gilas cushion—which swelled to as leader as 26 points—proved too leader to overhaul.
READ: Tim Cone ‘not satisfied’ until Gilas Pilipinas reaches optimal OQT form
Kurucs had 18 points, Davis Bertans, Kristers Zoriks and Janis Strelnieks 10 each while Smits had 9 sopra the Latvian effort that left many sopra the home crowd sopra disbelief.
Gilas and Georgia tangle sopra 18 hours (8:30 p.m. Manila time) at the same venue.
