Gilas Pilipinas overcomes ‘tall, tough’ U-20 Lithuanian squad

Smart Gilas Pilipinas players pose with the U-20 Lithuanian squad. Photo from Josh Reyes’ Instagram account

MANILA, Philippines – Smart Gilas Pilipinas overcame a tall Under-20 Lithuanian national team, 83-75, early Wednesday (Manila time) in its fourth tune-up match in Lithuania.

The Philippine team is in Lithuania for a two-week training.

With fatigue and homesickness setting in, Gilas bounced back from its first setback in Lithuania 86-89 last Monday but national team head coach Chot Reyes admits the win was far from perfect.

“We beat the tall and tough U-20 national team. Jas (Jason Castro) 14, MD (Marcus Douthit) 12, GN (Gabe Norwood) 9, GD (Gary David) 8, JA (Jimmy Alapag)/ JF (Junemar Fajardo)/LF  (Larry Fonacier) [scored] 7 each,”  said Reyes on his Twitter account (@coachot), where he has been giving updates on the squad.

The team staff, though, has held off all week on posting further details like boxscores and statistics, with Reyes saying, “dami natin ginagawang bago. Baka masilip.”

“Still a lot of turnovers, and [we] still shot poorly from the three, but [I] saw a lot of [positives],” he added.

In a photo posted by Josh Reyes, Chot’s son and a part of the coaching staff, the U-20 Lithuanians appeared to be almost as tall – if not, taller- as Smart Gilas Pilipinas.

Reyes said that three players they faced on Wednesday were “playing in the US NCAA Division 1” and while they were part of the U-20 team, all of the players  “were born in 1993.”