Gilas seeks to bounce back vs heavily favored Boomers

Gilas Pilipinas’ Juan Gomez de Liaño in action vs New Zealand in their Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers match in Auckland. –FIBA PHOTO

Gilas Pilipinas will try to close out its third window assignment in the Fiba Basketball World Cup Asia-Oceania Qualifiers with a win against heavily favored Australia at the RAC Arena on Monday in Perth.

The Filipinos try to put behind the painful effects of a 106-102 double-overtime loss to New Zealand last week behind and refocus against the hefty and talented Boomers, the sixth-ranked nation in the world that is undefeated in five matches thus far.

Gilas has a 2-3 record after that loss to the Tall Blacks, and though the Filipinos are assured of advancing to the next round, an upset win would come in handy as they would have some kind of buffer heading into the next window against formidable Middle Eastern nations.

The Aussies will be coming off a 124-52 demolition job of Guam also last week where Bryce Cotton, their newly naturalized player, debuted.

Cotton, already regarded as a legend in the NBL with the Perth Wildcats, had 18 points in as many minutes against Jericho Cruz and Guam.

Australia manhandled Gilas, 93-66, last March in Manila, and coach Tim Cone and the Nationals were really hoping to pull out a win against the Kiwis in New Zealand only to fold up late.

Justin Brownlee struggled early against the Kiwis, going scoreless in the first half. A similar start like that against the Aussies will certainly spell doom early for the Filipinos in Perth.

The Kiwis roughed up the Philippines’ talented naturalized player, who finished with only five points on 2-for-3 shooting.

The measly number of attempts from the field was a testament of how tough the Kiwis played Brownlee.

Still, Gilas kept in step with the 24th-ranked team in the world and almost pulled out a win despite that, and even with Kai Sotto and Quinton Millora-Brown out because of different reasons.

Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos and Juan Gomez de Liaño stepped up big time in plugging the hole created by Brownlee’s struggles. They are again expected to play key roles against the Aussies. INQ