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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Cone tips hats off to NZ defense as Brownlee misfires

Cone tips hats off to NZ defense as Brownlee misfires

Published Feb 27, 2026 01:29 pm

At A Glance

  • Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone tipped his hats off to New Zealand after putting the clamps on Justin Brownlee who was limited to a measly four points in their close 69-66 defeat on Thursday, Feb. 26 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone tipped his hats off to New Zealand after putting the clamps on Justin Brownlee who was limited to a measly four points in their close 69-66 defeat on Thursday, Feb. 26,at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The veteran mentor said Brownlee’s cold shooting was more than just a case of an off night and was actually caused by the stifling defense the Tall Blacks had against the naturalized player.

“They did a really good job of doubling Justin, denying him touches. People are going to point at the game and say he only had four points, but that was strictly through the game planning of New Zealand,” said Cone.

Brownlee was actually held scoreless through the first half and ended the contest on a poor 2-of-10 shooting including a 0-of-4 clip from the three-point territory.

Even with his struggles, however, Gilas kept itself within striking distance largely due to the efforts of CJ Perez and Dwight Ramos.

Ramos spearheaded a late rally for the Nationals to finish with 16 points while Perez had 10 of his 15 in the first half.

“We needed another guy to step up, CJ did, and Dwight did, but when it came down to the big plays, making a big shot, we weren't able to do that at crucial times,” said Cone.

New Zealand head coach Judd Flavell, on the other hand, did not deny that there was really a conscious effort on their part to prevent Brownlee from getting any sort of rhythm in the contest.

“He’s about 80 percent of our game plan,” said Flavell. “Whenever he’s on the floor, we know the ball is coming back to Brownlee.”

“He takes a lot of attention. He can score the basketball and he’s a true international scorer. So we just have to be in touch distance with him all the time. He’s involved in the actions so we want to make sure there’s always two guys on him and he gets to see a lot of bodies.”

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