The Philippine national basketball team, Gilas Pilipinas, fell to Georgia in a close match during their FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers game on Thursday. Despite the loss, Gilas secured their spot in the Semi-Finals round. Georgia needed a victory by at least 19 points to advance themselves.
Gilas Pilipinas are two wins away from the Olympics 👀🇵🇭#FIBAOQT x #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/c00d0DhwL7
— FIBA (@FIBA) July 4, 2024
Georgia came out strong in the first quarter, going on a dominant 16-0 run. Gilas clawed their way back, but Georgia still held a commanding 20-point lead (40-20) in the second quarter. However, Gilas refused to give up. They closed the gap with a 12-0 run before halftime and carried that momentum into the third quarter. With just 75 seconds remaining in the third period, Gilas even took their first lead of the game at 71-70.
Gilas Pilipinas trailed for most of the fourth. However, they kept the score close, forcing Georgia shot some “hail-mary” threes. Georgia even tried to extend the game to overtime but Goga Bitadze missed a put back on Philippines court, after Chris Newsome missed both of his free throw with just 2.8 seconds remaining in the game.
🇬🇪 Georgia player Goga Bitadze tried to SCORE in HIS OWN NET to send it to OT, but MISSED 😭😭
They needed to beat Gilas Pilipinas 🇵🇭 by 19 points to go to the next round of #FIBAOQT.pic.twitter.com/Fner1JEFeP
— amiel 🇵🇭 (@amtcfc) July 4, 2024
Just like their game against Latvia, Justin Brownless lead the team with 28 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Followed by Dwight Ramos and CJ Peres who scored 16 points and 14 points, respectively.
On Georgia’s side, even with their contribution, it was not enough for them to carry the team to the next stage of the tournament; Tornike Shengelia (17 points and 7 rebounds), Goga Bitadze (21 points and 9 rebounds), and Sandro Mamukelashvili (26 points and 7 rebounds).
Gilas Pilipinas will either play Brazil or Montenegro from GROUP B.