Troy Rosario (left) and Ray Parks crowd a Turkey player. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
NUMBERS don’t lie.
Troy Rosario and Bobby Ray Parks, considered to be the surprise picks of Gilas Pilipinas coach Tab Baldwin, more than proved their worth on Friday night in the Filipinos’ narrow loss to world No. 8 Turkey in a tune-up match.
The 6-foot-7 Rosario, a Gilas rookie, and Parks, the only non-PBA player in the roster, were put in the fire by Baldwin for a combined 29 minutes and led the squad in the “plus-minus” category, a stat that measures players’ efficiency.
Rosario and Parks came off the bench at the same time with 4:10 left in the first period and the Philippines holding an 18-15 lead.
Gilas would not lose hold of the driver’s chair while the duo was there—and it included a time when Andray Blatche got a much-needed reprieve late in the first period—with Parks even hitting a coast-to-coast layup with 8:08 left for the Filipinos’ biggest lead, 25-19.
After playing just a shade under 15 minutes, Parks finished +18 for Gilas after hitting six points, getting three rebounds and issuing the same number of assists. He was error-free for the night but was just 2-for-5 from the stripe.
Rosario, meanwhile, was +12 for Gilas. He had four points, getting two boards and an assist and going 2-for-4 from the field in under 14 minutes of action.
The plus-minus stat tracks a team’s score during a player’s stint on the floor.
Baldwin rued the loss of focus early in the third period that had the Philippines trailing, 50-33.
“We can’t be behind big to these teams,” Baldwin said Friday night after finally coming out of the dugout. “It’s just too steep to climb. We got to nip at these teams’ ankles for 40 minutes and hope to get a chance to win it in the end.”
“(This match) is a good gauge of how we have improved,” Baldwin said. “But we still have a lot more work to do.”
Gilas gets going against Tony Parker and France on Tuesday at 9 p.m. also at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, before clashing with New Zealand the following day.
The Filipinos need to win at least one of those game to advance to the Final Four and keep the Olympic dream alive.