GILAS Pilipinas looked disorganized but showed great grit in its first tune-up match heading to the Jones Cup by completing a come-from-behind 113-112 win over NLEX on Wednesday at the Meralco Gym.
Christian Standhandinger scored the final five points for the national team, including a short stab with 0.6 seconds left that completed its comeback from a 25-point, second-quarter deficit.
Trailing by four, 112-108 with 23 seconds to go, Gilas got a quick basket courtesy of a three-point play from Standhardinger to trim the lead to one with just eight ticks to go.
Matthew Wright then forced a turnover with eight seconds to go, leading to a frenetic final sequence where Kiefer Ravena found a wide-open Standhardinger underneath for the winning basket.
Despite the win, head coach Chot Reyes wasn't too happy with what he saw from this batch of Gilas players bound for the Jones Cup next week.
"Magulo yung laro. Sobrang gulo ng laro namin pati yung NLEX nagulo," said Reyes. "I thought NLEX outworked us in the first half. But we spoke to them in the second half, there was a big turnaround."
Ravena and Mike Myers led the team with 13 points apiece while Standhardinger finished with 12 points.
NLEX was led by import Aaron Fuller with 26 points.
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