BOCAUE — Christian Standhardinger admitted that in the Philippines’ game against Mongolia, inexperience got the better of the home side.
“The physicality is not the problem. The problem is the inexperience we have,” he said on the heels of the hosts’ 21-17 defeat to fall to 1-1 in Pool C of the 2018 Fiba 3x3 World Cup on Saturday.
Standhardinger believes that the Filipinos thrived in the physical nature of the halfcourt game, but they should know up to what extent the referees would allow it, with two unsportsmanlike fouls whistled against the home team.
“They had two against us, and that’s four free throws, four points. That’s two possessions plus the fouls called. We gave up like eight to 10 free throws,” he recounted.
Those mental lapses could be costly, especially against a Mongolian team which has made a name for itself in the 3x3 circuit these past two years, winning gold in the 2017 Fiba Asia 3x3 Cup before settling for a silver earlier this year.
But with every defeat comes a valuable lesson, and Standhardinger is looking at this shortcoming as an important learning ahead of the Philippines’ games against Canada and Russia on Monday.
“This is just experience. It will come. Don’t worry,” he said. “There are better teams on Monday. I don’t know what will happen, but I do think that we will play better.”
The Fil-German forward went to as far as making a promise, vowing: “Next time, we will win.”
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