The Philippines’ Gilas Men’s Basketball team fell short in its fourth-quarter comeback against the visiting New Zealand Tall Blacks, 69-66. This was the first of its two-game homestand in the second window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers at the Mall of Asia Arena last Thursday, February 26. The team now gets ready for a second heavyweight encounter, as it goes against the unbeaten Australia Boomers, now toting a spotless 3-0 slate, this Sunday, still at the MOA Arena.
With a 2-1 slate after its 2-game sweep over Guam, Gilas is still in no danger of being bumped off the second round of the Qualifiers. Three teams will advance to the 2nd round, and with its twin victories over Guam, the road to the 2nd round is still assured. It should be Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines moving to Round 2, if present trends hold true.
However, it should be noted that all teams will carry over the results from the First Round, ensuring every single game has meaning in the Road to Qatar 2027. This means that in the Second Round, each team will only play home-and-away against the three teams coming from the other group over three more windows scheduled in August 2026, November 2026, and February 2027 with two games per team being played in each window. Results of the home-and away games played by qualifiers from the same group shall be carried over.
The game against the Tall Blacks saw Gilas claw back to within a single possession after trailing by as much as 10 points in the 4th and last quarter. Down 53-63, Gilas launched a heroic push back to cut their deficit to 64-66 off a Dwight Ramos three-pointer with under a minute to play. However, this rally could not be sustained as the Tall Blacks regained their composure and took back control with barely seconds left.
Gilas badly missed the services of Kai Sotto, the driving force behind the team’s much-ballyhooed masterful win over the Tall Blacks in 2024. The Philippines also badly missed the usual scoring contribution of naturalized star Justin Brownlee, who was shackled and double-teamed no end by the Tall Blacks’ suffocating defense. Averaging 21.0 points in the Philippines’ earlier two-game sweep of Guam in the opening window, Brownlee finished with a measly 4 points on an off-night 2-of-9 clip.
But team rookie, Juan Gomez de Liano, gave a good account of himself. Juan GDL, as he is fondly called, made an immediate impact for Gilas Pilipinas, scoring 10 points and 2 assists. Also providing worthy performances were the 2 bigs, Quintin Millora Brown and AJ Edu, who fought valiantly with the absence of Sotto, and with the veteran June Mar Fajardo now playing limited minutes.
This Sunday will see an even bigger challenge, as Gilas faces the Boomers, owners of an immaculate 2-0 slate against the Tall Blacks in the 1st round. For Gilas Pilipinas, the margin for error has narrowed to a razor’s edge. While the early blowout wins against Guam provided a comfortable cushion, the recent 66–69 heartbreaker against New Zealand has transformed this qualifying window into a high-stakes survival test.
The path to the second round remains open, but the gradient has steepened. To avoid a complicated mathematical scramble in the coming rounds, the Nationals must now find a way to dismantle the clinical efficiency and the bullying ways of Australia, and exact sweet revenge on the “Tall Blacks” in their upcoming rematch. In the pressure cooker of the Mall of Asia Arena, the mission is no longer just about winning – it is about proving that this ever-evolving line-up is up to the task, and is capable of consistently trading blows with the region’s heavyweights, securing its place among the elite before the road up ahead becomes even more difficult.
Cover pic courtesy of Xinhua. Other pics courtesy of PhilStar, the Manila Journal and Rappler. For a closer look, please click on the pics.
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