2 weeks ago
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Olmin Leyba - The Philippine Star
February 25, 2025 | 12:00am
Gilas Pilipinas now faces an uphill climb after finishing second in Group B play.
FIBA.com
MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas’ faltering finish in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers has made its path to glory in the Continental meet in August in Saudi Arabia rockier.
With a fiery 4-0 start in Group B, the Nationals had a chance to finish on top of the group but stumbled and sustained numbing “away” losses to Chinese-Taipei and New Zealand in the third and final window.
Thus, the troops of coach Tim Cone settled for No. 2 in their bracket behind the topnotcher Kiwis (5-1) heading to the draw for the Asia Cup slated for April 8 in Jeddah.
Cone and Co. would have actually preferred a higher seeding which would have enabled them to avoid crossing paths early with the superpowers in the Aug. 5 to 17 joust.
“We really wanted to get that top seeding but that’s now going to go to New Zealand and we’re going to have a tougher road to the Cup,” said Cone after their 87-70 blowout to the Tall Blacks in Auckland.
Heavyweights abound in the initial cast of combatants for the 16-team field.
Two-time defending champion Australia qualified as topnotcher of Group A along with runner-up South Korea as China (C), Jordan (D), Iran (E) and Lebanon (F) advanced by topping their respective groups.
Group second-placers Japan and Qatar and host Saudi Arabia round out the qualifiers as of Sunday’s completed matches. Syria and Bahrain were scheduled to face off last night in Doha to dispute Group F No. 2 and complete the march of 12 qualified squads after the three windows.
Meanwhile, four more slots will be contested in two Qualifying Tournaments next month featuring the six third-placed teams in the Qualifiers.
Thailand, Chinese-Taipei and Guam, which is bannered by Jericho Cruz, will contest the two tickets in one group. Iraq, meanwhile, is in the other group with either India or Kazakhstan from Group E and either Syria or Bahrain from Group F as opponents.
As for Gilas, the next months leading to the Asia Cup will be spent assessing and contemplating whether tweaks should be done to address the problems that have troubled it recently, including manpower issues amid the absence of Kai Sotto.
