Gilas Pilipinas couldn’t translate its courageous stand against host Serbia the other day into a spot in the semifinals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament after suffering a 94-67 loss to the Dominican Republic early Friday, July 2 Manila time in Belgrade.

An error-prone second half resulted in Gilas losing a slim halftime lead even as the Caribbean nation came out and turned a tight contest into a lopsided affair to claim the win going away at the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in the Serbian capital.

Veteran guard Victor Liz, the athletic Gervis Solano, Mike Torres and Angel Nunez were responsible for sealing Dominican Republic’s place in the semifinal against Group B winner Italy while leaving coach Tab Baldwin and the rest of the Gilas contingent to ponder on the huge beating.

“No excuses,” said Baldwin. “Not much to say other than we were outplayed, outcoached and outgunned.”

It wasn’t the performance Baldwin had hoped after Gilas came close to scoring an upset over Serbia before falling 83-76 in its opening campaign in the Belgrade OQT.

And after absorbing a massive beating for the first time since making a strong impression in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, the young group of Gilas cagers will return home with thoughts of trying to become better versions of themselves.

“We’ll head home with lessons in our pocket,” he said. “Sort of a mixed campaign here with a decent performance against Serbia and a disappointing performance tonight. These guys will work hard together and will take this on the chin and we’ll try to learn our lessons and build for the future.”

Jordan Heading was one of the few bright spots with 16 points with three of his four made triples coming in the first two quarters that saw Gilas lead by a high of eight, 33-25.

Ange Kouame, who came off the bench this time, had 10 points and six rebounds in 21 minutes.

But the most glaring numbers for Gilas were its cold second half shooting and the number of turnovers committed against the physical Dominican Republic defense.

Gilas committed 23 turnovers during the match while its shooting percentage dipped after making half of its 28 attempts in the first half, going 5-of-15 in the third which the Dominican Republic took advantage.

That came during a telling windup in the third when the Dominicans scored 12 unanswered points to turn a 53-51 lead into 65-51 going into the final period highlighted by back-to-back three-point plays by Nunez and Solano.

Kouame’s hook to open the fourth gave Gilas something to look forward to, but Dominican quickly responded with another 12-0 run that ended on Liz’s triple with 6:25 to go in the ballgame.

Liz, who is 35 years old, finished with 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting including five triples, Solano had 20 points highlighted by a right-handed dunk in the third with five rebounds and three steals while Torres and Nunez added 20 and 13 points for the Dominican Republic.