Gilas continues to iron out all its errors in preparation for the FIBA World Cup.
Gilas Pilipinas’ mettle was tested early on during its opening match win versus Iran in the Heyuan WUS International Basketball Tournament in China.
But while many fans were pleased with the performance displayed by the team, coach Chot Reyes was not happy with how Gilas played in some parts of the game.
Reyes, specifically, lamented the team’s slow start and its poor finish to the game.
“It was a bad start and a very bad finish for us,” Reyes said in the postgame interview. “We played well in the middle part of the game, but we need to start games better and we need to finish games better.”
Gilas opened the fourth quarter with a 10-1 run to increase its lead to 22, 69-47.
However, Iran was able to narrow down that 22-point deficit to a mere 9 points by taking advantage of Gilas’ sloppy turnovers late in the game.
While there were many bright spots for Gilas during the match, limiting turnovers and having good starts is something that Reyes hopes the team can achieve when it faces Senegal later tonight at 8 p.m.
“Senegal is a very big, strong, tall team, so it's going to be a big challenge for us. That's why I wanted to rest some of my guys in the fourth quarter to prepare for the game,” Reyes added.
Unfortunately, Gilas' sloppy finish doused cold water on Reyes' original plans. The good thing is that the team will get the chance to rectify its mistakes immediately, only this time, it will be facing arguably a tougher opponent.
You can catch the game live on One Sports and the Pilipinas Live App.
(MDB)