Turkey shreds Gilas Pilipinas

FACING the kind of competition it will tackle in the Manila Olympic Qualifier in two weeks, Gilas Pilipinas on Tuesday (Wednesday morning in Manila) never had a chance against Turkey and got blown off the floor big time.

The Filipinos trailed by 11 after the first period and by 25 at the turn and dropped a 103-68 decision to the Turkish National Five in an exhibition match in Istanbul where a reported hundreds of overseas Filipino workers came to watch.

Andray Blatche carried the fight for the Filipinos with 23 points, with Jason Castro shooting 15 against the eighth-ranked team in the globe.

Gilas has been gaining steady improvement in the Fiba rankings and will come into the OQT ranked 28th in the world.

It was the first game for the Filipinos overseas ever since coach Tab Baldwin assembled this batch of Nationals, who will be trying to win the OQT—which Turkey is also a part of—on July 5 to 10 at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

The Philippines and Turkey will again play an exhibition on July 1 at Smart Araneta Coliseum and could clash again in the Qualifying proper—in the Final Four—if the Filipinos win at least one of two preliminary round matches.

Team Philippines is bracketed along with France and New Zealand in Group B and a win against either could propel the Filipinos to the crossover second round and meet Group A’s No. 1, which could be Turkey.

Turkey will be playing against Canada and Senegal in Group A, with the Turkish squad installed as the team to beat in their bracket.

Shooting guard Birzam Batuk fired 22 points to lead Turkey.

Gilas will take a one-day rest before flying to Bologna in Italy for a pocket tournament that would include China, Canada and the Italians.

The Filipinos will be home on June 28. Musong R. Castillo