Photo taken from Italbasket Facebook page
GILAS Pilipinas failed to recover from a bum start and took another lopsided road loss against Italy on Saturday (Sunday morning in Manila), just nine days before the all-important Olympic Qualifying Tournament gets off the ground in Pasay.
Italy scored the first 22 points and went on to tear the dumbfounded Filipinos to shreds, 106-70, at the start of a four-nation pocket tournament at Land Rover Arena in Bologna.
Danilo Gallinari, the Denver Nuggets forward in the NBA, led the early blitzkrieg against the Philippines, which yielded 40 first-quarter points and never got back in contention the rest of the night.
Gallinari went on to finish with 20 points for the Italians, who will also try to win their own Olympic qualifier at home on July 5 to 10 and book a slot to the main draw of the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.
Andray Blatche led the Filipinos with 21 points, but most of those came when the Italians were already cruising after going up 40-7 at the end of the first quarter and 64-23 at the half.
The losing margin was one worse than the 103-68 decision the Filipinos, assembled by coach Tab Baldwin two months ago, absorbed against Turkey last week in Istanbul.
Gilas clashes with Turkey again in its final tuneup on July 1 before opening its campaign in the Manila qualifier against Tony Parker and France on July 5.
A loss against the French will make the Filipinos’ encounter with New Zealand the next day a make-or-break match.
Terrence Romeo and Troy Rosario scored 10 points each for Gilas against the Italians.
Gilas next plays China, which lost to Canada on Saturday. Musong R. Castillo
The scores
ITALY 106—Gallinari 20, Bellineli 11, Datome 8, Cervi 8, Gentile 8, Hackett 7, Abbas 7, Bargnani 6, Dela Valle 6, Cusin 4, Cinciarini 4, Melli 3.
GILAS PILIPINAS 70—Blatche 21, Rosario 10, Romeo 10, Castro 9, Pingris 4, Abueva 3, De Ocampo 3, Aguilar 3, Norwood 2, Fajardo 2, Chan 2, Parks 1, Tenorio 0, Reyes 0.
Quarters: 40-7, 64-23, 80-50, 106-70