Reyes sees growth as Gilas survives Alaska in testy encounter

Tune up game between Alaska and Gilas Pilipinas. Photo by Mark Giongco

Gilas Pilipinas was looking for a fight and Alaska dragged the young Filipinos into a fiery, rough-and-tumble duel Saturday.

The national team came out of its three-games-in-four days gauntlet unblemished but had to go through the wringer with close shaves against NLEX, Blackwater and a scrappy Alaska side.

It was only a tune-up game but there was no shortage of drama, with bodies crashing and elbows flying. Kiefer Ravena buried the game-winning triple with 28 seconds left in the testy encounter that saw Calvin Abueva and Fil-German Christian Standhardinger figure in a heated commotion late.

And it was a kind of exhibition game Gilas, which leaves for Taipei on Friday for the Jones Cup, needed.

“Christian Standhardinger loves that. That’s the game he grew up playing and same with Mike Myers, it’s no problem with us,” said national team head coach Chot Reyes told reporters after his squad escaped with a 120-117 win at Gatorade Hoops Center in Mandaluyong City.

“More than the testiness, it was a hard game. We know Alaska is a disciplined team and they press a lot and I’m just very happy that we’re able to withstand it,” said Reyes.

Mike Myers led Gilas with 17 points, 13 rebounds and four assists while Standhardinger just missed a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds.

But despite sweeping its last three outings, Reyes thinks Gilas is still far from where it wants to be but has been a lot of progress.

“We want to play tuneups because we want to test the stuff that we’re doing and also to figure what we need to work on some more and it’s quite definite in those three games we had a lot of unnecessary turnovers. Very simple passes that are going out of bounds and that’s really familiarity more than anything else,” Reyes said.

“But like I’ve said, we need to go through this painful process in order for us to grow and I think we really grew in the last three games.”

Gilas resumes practice on Monday. The team missed the services of big man Raymar Jose and playmaker Jio Jalalon, who are both dealing with an injured ankle.