DESPITE losing two games in a row, Gilas Pilipinas is already assured of advancing to the second round of the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.
The host team suffered a 27-point shellacking at the hands of Australia, 93-66, on Sunday night at the Mall of Asia Arena - a second straight loss that evened its record at 2-2 (win-loss) in Group A.
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But thanks to the Tall Blacks’ 99-67 beating of Guam earlier on Sunday,and the Nationals’ back-to-back wins against Guam to open the qualifiers, Gilas punched its ticket to the next round.
“We’re not going to lose our berth in losing to New Zealand and Australia,” Gilas coach Tim Cone said afterwards.
Notwithstanding Gilas already clinching a berth to the next round, Cone stressed the need to carry a better record to the next round
“But these games are carry over. They’re still very, very important,” he later pointed out, referring to the third and final window where the Philippines travel to New Zealand and Australia for two crucial matches.
“We carry over with a bad record, it’s going to be much tougher for us. There should be no margin for error (in the second round)."
Australia remained on top of Group A with a 4-0 record as it already clinched a spot into the second round as early as Thursday following its 93-80 win over Guam.
The Philippines and New Zealand are currently tied for second place, while Guam is at the bottom of the group at 0-4.
The third and final window is set in July with all three teams trying to vie for a higher seeding to finish the opening round.
“So we need to at least get one win from the four games we played against Australia and New Zealand so that we can have a bigger margin for error,” said Cone. “If we don’t, we may have to do something like sweep the second round against the Middle Eastern teams.”
Australia, Philippines, and New Zealand will be bracketed in Group E against possibly Jordan, Iran, and Syria.
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