Philippines vow to keep fighting after FIBA U-17 loss to Greece

Jose Maria Santos 07:57 10/08/2014
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  • Height disadvantage: The Filipino players (white) were no match for Greece.

    Philippines national team Batang Gilas played with a big heart but still lost to taller Greece 85-65 on day two of the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship at Al Shabab Arena on Saturdaynight.

    Though smaller, the Philippines created more points in the paint, 26-24, but Greece dominated the rebounds and had more second-chance points, 20-4, and had more points coming off the bench, 45-29.

    Cheered on by a capacity crowd of Filipino expats, the Philippines started strong with a 9-2 blast after Jolo Mendoza, who led Gilas with 19 points, opened the match with a corner three and followed it up with back-to-back baskets.

    The smaller Gilas also played tough defence, harassing Greece’s 7’1” centre Giorgios Papagiannis inside the paint which forced coach Dimitris Papanikolaou to abruptly shuffle his players and opt for a shorter line-up.

    “The Philippines had five short players but it was not easy to under­estimate them and we had to adjust with our line-up,” Papanikolaou told Sport360°.

    Antonis Pefanis led the counter-attack for Greece, scoring 11 of his 26 points in the first period to put his team ahead, 25-17, going into the second frame.

    “We started with less concen­tration on the game, but after that we slowly found our rhythm and controlled the game,” said Papan­ikolaou.

    Greece stamped their dominance on the game at the start of the sec­ond quarter with a 10-2 run to in­crease their lead to double digits which went up to 20, 46-26, at the half.

    The third quarter saw the Phil­ippines slowing down a bit while Greece flexed their muscles and used their height advantage to reg­ister their biggest lead at 30, 63-33, going into the final period.

    But the Philippines youth team did not go down without a fight as Jose Go opened the fourth quarter with a triple and Michael Dela Cruz hit back-to-back triples.

    The Gilas also employed full court press in the closing minutes to cut down the lead and keep the crowd up on their feet bursting into thunderous cheers whenever points were scored.

    “We lost the game but we fought really hard. We played better, we connected more, we had better body language, higher confidence; and we played tougher on defence,” said Philippine national team coach Michael Jarin.

    “I’m very happy with my boys. Some of the coaches whom I talked to after the game told me: ‘you lost the game but you are winning the hearts of the world’.

    “Everybody is enjoying watch­ing us. We are the underdogs but we will continue to fight. We thank the huge support of our kababay­ans (countrymen) who watch our games in Dubai.

    “We’re excited to play against USA on Monday and we need to prepare because we are getting bet­ter. We played big against Angola, bigger against Greece and we will play biggest against USA,” added Jarin. 

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