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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Tim Cone rues Gilas failure to match Alex Eala's winning feat

Tim Cone rues Gilas failure to match Alex Eala's winning feat

Published Jul 3, 2026 10:06 pm

At A Glance

  • Alex Eala pulled off a historic second round win in the Wimbledon Championships after a 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Maya Joint to start the day and Gilas Pilipinas had the chance to follow that up against New Zealand to end it.

It could have been a day of celebration for Philippine sports.

Alex Eala pulled off a historic second round win in the Wimbledon Championships after a 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Maya Joint to start the day and Gilas Pilipinas had the chance to follow that up against New Zealand to end it.

Except that it fell short of the victory.

The Nationals absorbed a heartbreaking 102-106 defeat against the Tall Blacks in double overtime at the Spark Arena in Auckland on Friday, July 3.

And the loss was something Gilas head coach Tim Cone rued especially with the amount of support it got from Filipinos not only in Auckland but also from the rest of the globe.

“That was as painful as it can get. I'm at least happy that Alex was able to win her match. Her win was for the country. We couldn't do our part. Hurting,” tweeted Cone shortly after the game.

Like in Eala’s match, the country’s colors — be it on shirts, caps or flags — were all over the arena as Filipino fans came in droves and even turned the atmosphere hardly like a road game for Gilas.

“Let’s go Gilas” chants even roared inside the venue as the Nationals traded big shots after big shots against the Tall Blacks late in regulation and in the overtime periods.

During the post-game press conference, Cone further elaborated the frustration of not delivering a victory for the Filipinos.

“I don't think there’s any national team in the world that has that kind of following,” Cone said, talking about the support of the Filipinos in attendance.

“That makes it even tougher when we don’t deliver for them. Obviously we played with a lot of pride and they took pride with the way we played but bottom line is we got to win games for them and we didn’t tonight,” he stressed.

“Because they give us so much support, when we fail it is a lot harder for us to take as a group,” he added.

Related Tags

Tim Cone Gilas Pilipinas Alex Eala New Zealand FIBA FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers
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