Gilas Pilipinas ’embarrassed’

Philippines vs Palestine. Photo from Fiba Asia.com

CHANGSHA CITY, China—The locker room atmosphere was sombre.

“Too quiet,” was swingman Gabe Norwood’s description.

That gave coach Tab Baldwin a clue about his immediate goal as Gilas Pilipinas tries to rebound from a shocking loss and get its Olympic bid back on track against Hong Kong Thursday at Changsa Social Work College gym here.

“I have to pick these guys up,” Baldwin said after his wards took a 75-73 tumble at the hands of Palestine on Wednesday afternoon, a result that showed just how formidable the Palestinians are and exposed kinks in the armor of the Filipinos.

“Rightfully so, we’re embarrassed,” Baldwin said after the team failed to preserve a nine-point lead going into the final 4:41. “That’s not easy to pick up guys for. We’re all embarrassed and we should be.”

Baldwin has veterans, though, who can help him put the defeat into context.

“The thing to do now is we have to treat this as a wake up call,” said Norwood, who had four rebounds and three points in more than 15 minutes. “Our approach now would have to be to take this loss as a blessing because it came this early in the tournament.”

While the Filipinos will be coming into the 9:45 a.m. contest on a low, the morale of Hong Kong couldn’t be higher after ripping Kuwait to shreds, 87-50, in the tournament’s first game earlier.

Baldwin admitted a tactical error when he opted for a defensive five after taking a 71-62 lead with 4:41 left.

“Yeah, they were cold (off the bench),” Baldwin said of Marc Pingris and Ranidel de Ocampo. “But they were put there because we were being killed off the boards. They (Palestinians) had 83 shots. In a 40-minute game, that’s unheard of. That’s (more than) two (attempts) a minute.”

Gilas got killed by just four men offensively, with Sani Sakakini, who nailed the key three-point play late in the game that capped Palestine’s rally from 11 points down in the fourth, Jamal Abu Shamala and Imad Qahwash  combining for 65 points. Samal Sakakini, Sani’s younger brother, scored the other 10.

The scores:
PALESTINE 75—Abu Shamala 26, Sani Sakakini 22, Qahwash 17, Samal Sakakini 10, Haroon 0, Younis 0, Yousef 0.
GILAS PILIPINAS 73—Blatche 21, Romeo 11, Castro 10, De Ocampo 6, Intal 6, Abueva 5, Thoss 4, Hontiveros 3, Norwood 3, Ganuelas 2, Pingris 2, Taulava 0.
Quarters: 12-27, 40-45, 55-59, 75-73.