Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Gilas Pilipinas had a forgettable fourth quarter against Iran on Monday night.
The worst part even came down the stretch–in the last three minutes–where the Philippines only made one out of its eight attempts from the field, missed two free throws and had a pair of errant passes.
June Mar Fajardo came up empty at the line that would’ve given the Filipinos a three-point cushion with 2:20 left while Scottie Thompson threw one of the two bad passes with under 30 seconds to go when Gilas was only down by three.
Gilas captain Gabe Norwood stressed there’s no point in putting the blame on anyone else but themselves.
“Dejected, frustrated, disappointed, all of those, but there’s no one to blame but ourselves,” Norwood said after losing to Mohammad Jamshidi-led Iran, 78-70. “We had our opportunities, two winnable games, and kudos to Kazakhstan and Iran. They both came out, made big shots, made big plays, and they were ready.”
Still, Norwood has his head held high despite two crushing defeats.
“I mean tonight the effort was there, we came out executed a lot better compared to our last game. So, in that sense, the improvement to one game to the next is uplifting. At the same time, but if you’re not winning games, it’s not the plan,” he said.
Gilas slid to fourth place in Group F with a 5-5 card but its hopes of returning to the Fiba World Cup stays in its hands.
“Like I said, no one to blame but ourselves. I’m not aware of the scenario. But all I know is we need to win two games. And I’m not sure if that would be enough. We got a couple of months to figure things out and the best plan is to get us ready then we’ll go from there.”
The top three teams in Groups E and F plus the fourth-placer with the better record will book a ticket to China.