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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Brownlee stays defiant amid Gilas dry spell: 'We gotta keep fighting'

Brownlee stays defiant amid Gilas dry spell: 'We gotta keep fighting'

Published Aug 8, 2025 11:34 am

At A Glance

  • Justin Brownlee is refusing to be dejected by yet another gut-wrenching 94-86 loss for Gilas Pilipinas, this time, against New Zealand to remain winless in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Justin Brownlee remains positive for Gilas Pilipinas. (FIBA)
Justin Brownlee remains positive for Gilas Pilipinas. (FIBA)
Justin Brownlee is refusing to be dejected by yet another gut-wrenching 94-86 loss for Gilas Pilipinas, this time, against New Zealand to remain winless in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Gilas naturalized player certainly gave everything he could offer after erupting for 37 points, which went down the drain as the big deficit from the first half proved to be too much for the Nationals to overcome.
Still, Brownlee was liking the fight that the team had been showing amid the slump.
“I'm very proud of the guys. A lot of teams probably would give up in those situations,” said Brownlee in an interview with One Sports’ Carlo Pamintuan.
“I think down 20 or almost 20 points or whatever it was. It's just a point where we just, I guess in the game where we didn't even worry about the score, we just tried to fight and claw our way back in and we got in, we got back in the game,” he added.
Brownlee conspired with Dwight Ramos and June Mar Fajardo in the second half to pull Gilas to within 82-85 inside the final five minutes, before the Tall Blacks doused the last-ditch run with a strong finishing kick of their own.
Trailing by as many as 18 points in the contest, Gilas actually gave itself a legitimate chance at pulling the rug from under the world No.22 New Zealand, if not for a pair of crucial turnovers for the Filipinos and some clutch baskets from Tall Blacks guard Taylor Britt.
Those simply took the wind out of the Gilas sails in the closing moments.
“A couple mental mistakes and a couple big plays from New Zealand, you know, they held their lead and you just got to give them a lot of credit,” Brownlee said.
With the loss, Gilas slipped to a 0-2 record in the standings and now enters a do-or-die contest against Iraq in the final assignment of the group stage.
A win would have Gilas advancing to the qualification round for the quarterfinals while a loss would mean the end of the road for the Filipinos’ dream of ending the country’s 40-year title drought in the continental showpiece.
“We just got to move forward. We can't hang our heads, we can't be down on this loss. We got to just take whatever we learned from it and just move forward and at the end of the day,” said Brownlee.
“We just got to keep fighting and throwing out our Filipino pride,” he added.
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