Tim Cone and his Gilas Pilipinas crew look to quickly forget their loss to Chinese Taipei as they gun to complete the repeat this time against the New Zealand Tall Blacks in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers.
Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone look to put the disappointment of the Pinoys' loss to Chinese Taipei behind as they aim to finish strong in the third window of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers.
The Nationals' last assignment would be World No. 22 New Zealand, whom they beat for the first time in five tries — in an eight-year span — in the second window last November.
They meet Sunday, Feb. 23. at the Spark Arena in Auckland.
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Fresh from their setback to the 79th-ranked Taiwanese, 84-91, last Thursday, Feb. 20, No. 34 Gilas headed to the home turf of the Tall Blacks with the hopes of ending a woeful string of three straight losses dating to their Doha preparation stint, and scoring the repeat.
"We got to finish this trip and try to finish this strong. We're going to play a tough, a tougher New Zealand team. So somehow, we got to figure out a way to put this behind us and move forward," said Cone.
"It's going to be very difficult and is going to really test the character of the players," he added.
All roads lead to the FIBA Asia Cup in Saudi Arabia in August, and Cone could only hope that whatever the outcome was in the Doha friendly and the third window of the qualifiers would prove beneficial in the end.
"We also had the bigger picture in mind — going to FIBA Asia. Going to the Middle East to play, getting that feel of playing Middle Eastern teams: we won't know whether that helps us or hurts us until we get there in August and try. But our hope is we got something out of this that's going to help us in the big picture," said Cone.
Cone admitted though that this still does not diminish the pain of the Filipino dribblers' recent defeat to Chinese Taipei.
"But, right now, that doesn't make us feel any better, doesn't make the players feel better. Right now, we don't feel good about ourselves. We feel like we failed the country. And we had to find a way to lift our spirits up and get ready to move on into New Zealand," Cone said.
The multi-titled tactician added that the result was disappointing, especially as he believes that he and his charges should have brought their A-game against the retooled Taiwanese side which they previously demolished by 53 points, 106-53, in the first window last year.
"We were absolutely devastated. It was a game we felt we needed to win, [that] we should've won. Anytime we play on the world stage, we need to bring our best game and we just didn't do that," said Cone.
"It was really disappointing, but there's not much we can do about it at this point."
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Cone felt that he and his crew failed to represent the country well after failing to come up with the win, but all they could do was accept responsibility for it.
"But that's what playing on the world stage is all about. You're going to have these ups and downs. But again, we just have to own this one. We feel devastated. We want to represent the country well and we just did not do that," said Cone.
Gilas Pilipinas hope that there is no way but up for them from here as they take on New Zealand.
Match is at 10 a.m.
(With reports from Nic Earnshaw, Cignal TV)