GILAS Pilipinas chalked up its first win in its European training trip via a 70-61 verdict over Ukraine’s Under-20 (U-20) team Saturday at the Zalgiris Arena in Kaunas, Lithuania.
But the Nationals’ overall performance in their third friendly of the trip, especially on defense, drew flak from coach Chot Reyes himself.
“Although we won this game, I still think there were a lot of defensive lapses and if I were to rate it, I think it’s the worst game that we played since the start,” Mr. Reyes said in an interview posted on the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas’ Facebook page.
Gilas lost to Estonia (71-81) and Finland (85-89) in their two previous tuneup games over in Tallinn but Mr. Reyes was more pleased with the pool’s showing there.
“I know this is the game that we won but I thought there’s a lot more to be desired,” he said.
He, however, admitted the absence of playmakers Scottie Thompson (back spasm) and Chris Newsome (bruised knee) played a factor here.
Gilas held a slim 33-31 lead after two quarters with June Mar Fajardo and Justin Brownlee dropping seven apiece. The short-handed crew maintained control and widened the gap to 59-50 early in the fourth on back-to-back fastbreak buckets by Rhenz Abando.
Though he called it the “worst,” Mr. Reyes lauded the efforts of the Pinoy cagers.
“I was pleased with how quickly we picked up the new things that we worked on yesterday (Friday) in practice,” said the Gilas mentor.
“In our overall journey in the process, we focused on cutting down on our turnovers, not giving up offensive rebounds and then being able to execute the defense that we worked on yesterday. I think we were able to do that.”
Gilas and the Ukrainians were set for a rematch Sunday night.
After the twin matches, Gilas will have two more tough Euro opponents to face before wrapping up the Lithuanian leg of this pre-FIBA World Cup expedition. — Olmin Leyba