GILAS Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes lauded the efforts of his players instead of dwelling on the negatives in an 88-63 loss at the hands of New Zealand in their 2023 Fiba World Cup Asian qualifier on Sunday night.
"I was very proud of the effort of our guys. We played a tough team. We didn’t back down. We kept ourselves in the ball game until I think late in the third quarter," said Reyes after his second Gilas game since replacing Tab Baldwin.
"But like I said, I couldn’t ask for anything more from our players. I thought they came in, and they executed."
For Reyes, the lopsided result was just a testament to the pedigree of the Kiwis, who are ranked No. 27 in the world, as coach Pero Cameron made the right moves to stop the Filipinos' offense and punch holes in the hosts' defense.
"Credit to New Zealand. They were able to pick apart our defensive schemes, and that’s how it got reflected," he said.
Chot sticks to positives
Reyes also declined to dwell on the supposed no-calls that went against Gilas.
The Philippines was called for 24 fouls and the Tall Blacks went 17-of-25 from the free throw line. In comparison, New Zealand was whistled 19 times, but Gilas could not capitalize and only shot 10-of-23 from the stripe.
"Basketball is such a game that there's going to be fouls that are going to be called or uncalled. But those are part of the game still," he said.
"We didn't lose the game because of the referees, or we did lose the game because of the officiating. We lost the game because New Zealand really defended us and played us very physical," he added.
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