Fearless rookie Bolick unfazed vs Serbs

Photo from Fiba.com

FOSHAN, China—Gilas Pilipinas rookie Robert Bolick had a respectable game against Italy Saturday, no matter what the final score was in the Filipinos’ World Cup debut here.

But the heady point guard feels that there’s nothing positive about his six-point effort built around a 4-for-4 clip from the stripe and his veteran-like quarterbacking of the team that struggled all game.

“We lost that game, so no matter what we did, the bottom line is that we still lost,” Bolick said on the eve of the Filipinos’ must-win game against World No. 4 Serbia Monday. ”I won’t take that as a positive. I’ll leave that to the people back home (to decide).”

There was a lot of flak surrounding Bolick’s naming to the Gilas Five here, but the former San Beda ace in the NCAA justified his inclusion in spades and played better than some of the veterans in the team in that ill-fated first game.

Bolick can certainly talk with some measure of pride if one would judge his 15-minute stint against the Italians.

Instead, he is hard on himself like anyone else in the squad.

“Our coaches prepared us hard for this (tournament), and we let them down (in our first game),” he said. “We have to come back and play hard for our country and our coaches as well.”

Staying alive in the World Cup would mean upsetting Nikola Jokic and the Serbs in their 7:30 p.m. clash on Monday.

And Bolick is not one who will back down from a fight.

“I think we will shock them for as long as we play with heart.”