After a convincing win last week, Gilas Pilipinas hopes to complete a sweep against Thailand as the two teams clash again in the final day of Window 2 of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers Monday in a bubble in Manama, Bahrain.
The national team scored a dominant 93-61 victory over Thailand during their first game last Friday.
Gilas used a big second quarter ,where it unleashed a 22-8 run that turned a 21-19 advantage after one quarter to 53-27 lead on a three-point play by rookie forward Dwight Ramos.
The 6-foot-4 Ramos led the national team with 20 points, and added seven rebounds, three assists and the same number of steals, while Juan Gomes de Liano and Justin Baltazar contributed 12 points apiece.
The win improved the national team’s record to 2-0 in Group A to tie South Korea, which opted to skip the event due to COVID-19. Indonesia sports a 1-2 card after a 90-76 win against Thailand, which dropped to 0-3.
Gilas head coach Jong Uichico has decided to insert NCAA MVP Calvin Oftana of San Beda and Jaydee Tungcab of University of the Philippines in the second match against the Thais. FIBA allows a lineup tweak for this particular qualifying tournament.
The national team brought 15 players to Bahrain, including 14 healthy members since Allyn Bulanadi has already been ruled out due to a knee injury. Oftana and Tungcab will replace Will Navarro and Mike Nieto.
Uichico said the other day that he expects the all-amateur team to play well.
“Me and coach Tab (Baldwin)… were surprised with the way we played,” said Uichico. “The score was not our primary concern, but more on how we should play.”
In the first game against Thailand, the national team converted 35-of-73 (47.95%) shots from the field, including 10-of-31 from three-point territory, while its defense held Thailand to just 19-of-64 (29.69%) shooting.
Gilas also forced Thailand to 22 turnovers, which the Nationals translated to 28 turnover points, and while the two teams had the same total rebounds 43, Gilas scored 42 points in the paint.
The event serves as qualifying tournament for the FIBA Asia Cup next year, a tournament previously known as the FIBA Asia Championship, which the Nationals won in 1985, and was runner up in 2013 and 2015.