With its win over Qatar, Gilas looking good

By Al S. Mensoza

 

DESPITE being down by 17 points most of the way, Gilas Pilipinas still went on to defeat Qatar on Monday in the Fiba Cup Qualifiers.

Despite its glaring lack of ceiling, Gilas Pilipinas still overcame the bigs and heft of Qatar.

And, despite the absence of the nation’s famous “sixth man,” we still scored a convincing 92-81 victory over a Qatar quintet that only faltered going into the homestretch.

Look, there was no Andray Blatche to speak of.

The 7-foot-1 Blatche, our naturalized Filipino, was still serving his suspension as a result of his involvement in the recent PHL-Australia brawl at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Jun Mar Fajardo, the 6-foot-11 pillar of San Miguel Beer, is nursing a leg injury.

Same with Greg Slaughter, the 7-foot Ginebra mainstay, who is still on the injured list.

And then this:  Christian Standhardinger, the 6-foot-8 Fil-German who starred in our gritty loss to Iran, succumbed to exhaustion to pave the way for Stanley Pringle’s entry against Qatar.

In short, these factors—mostly pivotal—hounded Gilas going into the Qatar game.

But credit the boys’ resilience, resolve to win, rapid response to the call of duty and reasonable cohesion, allowing them to survive Qatar in yet stunning fashion.

For sure, coach Yeng Guiao was a key cog in the victory.

While it is a given that our lineup is talent-filled, welding them together into a killer crew would absolutely rest on the shoulders of the coach.

Definitely, Yeng Guiao, despite losing his grip on that almost won-game tussle against China, has more than atoned himself with that win over Qatar.

The win was big if only because it gave us a third overall placing, more than enough to qualify us to the next round.

And who was our “sixth man” again that went missing on Monday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum?

Our passionate crowd, who else?  Do they not go hoarse cheering us on every dribble of the way during every game?

Said Guiao: “Suddenly, it became surreal for us in the Qatar game as we are used to hearing the lusty cheers of our fans.  Thank God, we survived their absence.”

As part of our punishment in that “basket brawl” against Australia, the PHL-Qatar game was ordered played behind closed doors by Fiba.

A rather unfair decision, if you ask me.

Why punish the fans for a crime committed by others—the players, to be precise?

But the bigger truth that keyed up our victory over Qatar is our latent talent to face even the most challenging odds with no fear.

Our next game is in November, giving us the luxury of a longer period of preparation.

And, at the rate we are playing despite having a team assembled only barely two weeks before the tournament, it looks like we’ve been making giant steps that might yet lead to success on the global stage—finally.

Just keep faith, fellas.

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