Coach Chot Reyes lamented on the rebounding woes of Gilas Pilipinas in the aftermath of its lopsided 92-75 loss to New Zealand in the FIBA Asia Cup 2022.

Gilas’ rebounding struggles overshadowed the team's effort to keep the ball well after only listing a single turnover throughout the game.
Reyes said Gilas already lost the game as early as the opening game after starting it flat and falling behind 20-8. Gilas managed to cut the lead down to five in the second frame but the Filipinos allowed the Tall Blacks to get second chance points to rebuild a sizeable margin.
“We lost the game in the first quarter, we got outrebounded by 33 rebounds, there’s no way for us to win the ball game getting outrebounded that way,” lamented Reyes.
As the smoke settled, Gilas found itself with only 28 rebounds as compared to the Tall Blacks’ 61 boards. Sam Mennega, for one, asserted his might inside the paint against the smaller Gilas frontline, hauling down eight rebounds to finish with a game-high 16 boards.
Gilas captain Kiefer Ravena said that while the young crew managed to limit their turnovers, he emphasized the need to double the effort on the defensive end by clearing the rebounds.
“It’s amazing that we only got one turnover the whole game and getting outrebounded more than our actual rebounds. It is another mind boggling fact that happened today so those are the two things that we weren’t able to capitalize on our almost perfect no-turnover game,” said Ravena.
Reyes hopes to address that in the coming knockout match against Japan since they need to limit their touches if they hope to contain the Akatsuki Five’s tournament leading offense and three-point shooting.
“We still have a chance, one more against Japan to get to the top eight. And now we have to forget this ballgame and just focus our energies and our thoughts towards our next game,” he stressed.