TURNOVERS, plain and simple, doomed Gilas Pilipinas' bid to bring down host Lebanon in the 2023 Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers on Friday morning.
Coach Chot Reyes made that frank assessment after the Philippines turned the ball over 21 times before hostile fans at the Nouhad Nawfal Sports Complex in Zouk Mikael, aiding the Cedars' thrilling 85-81 victory.
[See Arakji delivers late as Lebanon denies Gilas]
"Unfortunately, we had too many turnovers - 21 turnovers really was the big difference in this ballgame and that's just a result of us not yet as familiar with each other as we'd like to be," Reyes said in the post-game press conference.
Nine of those turnovers came in the second quarter when the hot-starting Filipinos cooled off and allowed the Lebanese to seize control of the game.
Put that in contrast to Lebanon's nine miscues for the whole game as the Fiba Asia cup silver medalists played disciplined basketball all throughout led by point guard extraordinnaire Wael Arakji.
Reyes, however, believes that with time, those miscues could be rectified starting in Gilas' next game against Saudi Arabia on Monday.
"If we get some more time or more practice together, then we should be able to address that," he said.
Nonetheless, Reyes takes solace seeing the fight that the Philippines put up behind Jordan Clarkson, who led the crew with 27 points, seven assists, and six rebounds in his debut as the country's naturalized player.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game. It was going to be difficult because we're playing the No. 2 team in Asia from the Fiba Asia Cup playing at home. So we expected that it will be a big challenge, big battle for us," he said.
"But I'm very proud of the way our team played. I thought we battled and we battled hard. We competed, gave it our best shot. Unfortunately, the results didn't come out our way."
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph