Gilas Pilipinas keep their Olympic dream alive, despite a narrow loss to Georgia in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Gilas fell short in their comeback bid from 20 points down against Georgia, 96-94, but still secured its spot in the semifinals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Latvia on Thursday, July 4.
Despite the loss, the Nationals will still march on to the penultimate round by virtue of superior quotient. Georgia needed to beat the Philippine team by 19 points to advance.
After a fiery start against Latvia less than 24 hours prior, Gilas Pilipinas saw Georgia flip the script, racing off to a 16-0 blitz in the opening period en route to a 20-point lead in the second as the world No. 23 squad gained early control of the match.
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But Gilas soon found its footing in the last two quarters to turn it into a close contest and eventually trim the gap to secure its passage to the crossover semis.
Gilas Pilipinas is semis-bound. | Photo (c) FIBA
Justin Brownlee once again showed the way for the Nationals, following up his 26-9-9 performance against the host country with an equally impressive 28-point, eight-rebound, eight-assist showing.
Dwight Ramos shot four triples for 16 points while CJ Perez caught fire in the fourth, unloading 12 of his 14 markers there. Chris Newsome added 13.
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Kai Sotto, the team's second best scorer in its Latvia upset with 18 he topped with eight rebounds, was held to just four points after hurting his rib as Goga Bitadze landed on him, forcing him to sit out the match from the 6:42 mark in the second period.
Gilas coach Tim Cone later said that Sotto headed to the hospital to have his injury checked.
NBA players Bitadze (Orlando Magic) and Sandro Mamukelashvili (San Antonio Spurs) spearheaded Georgia's first half charge and finished with 26 and 21 points, respectively. Tornike Shengelia put up 17.
Bitadze made a desperate move to send the game into overtime by trying to tip the ball into the basket as Newsome missed his second attempt from the stripe, but it rimmed out.