Cage gold main source of SEA Games pride

At least the gold medal that mattered most has been secured.

Finally flashing its finest form, the Gilas Pilipinas team of young pros and top players from its Cadets’ pool overwhelmed Indonesia, 94-55, Saturday night to give the Filipinos their 12 straight men’s basketball title and their 18th overall since joining the Southeast Asian Games in 1977.

After a scrambling start, Mike Tolomia unloaded 11 of his game-high 20 points in the second quarter to power the Filipinos ahead by 18 points at halftime, 45-27.

Gilas then stormed ahead beyond recall at 67-38 going into the last quarter.

The rout recalled the 97-64 whipping another Gilas Pilipinas team, then bannered by its strongest lineup, dealt on Indonesia in their title game for the Southeast Asia Basketball Association Championship (Seaba) title at home in May to qualify for the Fiba Asia Cup in Lebanon which Australia won over Iran.

The Gilas team under coach Chot Reyes went on to salvage seventh place.

Virtually unchallenged in their favorite sport after a monumental upset by Malaysia in 1989, the Filipinos struggled in uncharacteristic fashion this time.

Gilas did a lot of scrambling to turn back Thailand in its opening game, 81-74, and then held on to repulse Singapore in the semifinals, 68-60.

Singapore also gave Indonesia a big scare in their semifinal duel before dropping a 79-74 decision. Singapore then went on to lose the bronze to Thailand, 64-55.

The Indonesians trailed the Filipinos, 15-19, after the first quarter but were no match for the defending champions from there.

The basketball gold was the biggest achievement among three victories for the day by the Filipinos, who could only come up with 18 golds (as of Saturday) so far going into the last five days of the biennial games which the country will host in 2019.

Where to get the remaining golds to reach the overall projection of 50 which PH delegation head Cynthia Carrion had predicted is now a big problem. And the prospect of another sixth-place overall finish looms with the country stuck in that slot since Day 1.

With the way the gold medals have been trickling in, the country will be hard-pressed to even duplicate its golden haul of 29 in Singapore.

Again, the many problems facing PH sports are pulling the Filipino athletes down and if we can’t at least surpass that 2015 gold harvest, there’s no reason we can be a credible competition host two years from now.