Despite the euphoria of beating South Korea in the first of their two matches in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, Dwight Ramos believes that there are plenty of things Gilas Pilipinas needs to improve.
“It’s definitely a wake-up call for me. It just shows that we still need a lot of improvement,” Ramos said after topscoring for Gilas with 16 points in the 81-78 comeback win Wednesday, June 16 that ended on SJ Belangel’s three-pointer.
Gilas had to battle back from a 17-point second quarter after getting accustomed to South Korea’s physicality early into the contest.
Ramos, along with Belangel, RJ Abarrientos, Ange Kouame and Kai Sotto were among those who were key in the turnaround that sealed the Philippines’ spot in the FIBA Asia Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia this August.
“Just the physicality of the players, they really pressured up on me. I don’t think I was ready for that,” Ramos described.
“But as the game went by, I kinda adjusted a little bit, I tried to protect the ball a little more,” he added.
Despite lamenting on things to fix, Ramos is also excited about what this young Gilas squad can achieve moving forward.
“I’m super excited for our team,” he said. “I mean, we have all young guys, they are all excited to be here. We’re just ready to work every opportunity we could get. We just wanna work.
“I think everyone has the right attitude going into the games and practices, we’re all looking for improvement. And I know we won the game (against South Korea) but I still think that everyone’s thinking of how to improve.”