GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone admitted the loss to Australia was a bitter pill to swallow after being blown out by the Boomers in the second half of their FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers game.
The Philippines trailed only by five, 38-33, at the half, when Australia hit another gear behind Elijah Pepper’s sizzling second-half scoring to run way with a 93-66 victory to the disappointment of the Mall of Asia Arena crowd pegged at 17,301.
“It was a very painful one,” Cone said during the postgame press conference. “It was (a) very painful second half. It was painful to be a part of. Painful to watch especially being in front of our home crowd. We want to be better than that.”
READ Cone looking to change up offense after Gilas misfires again
Pepper had a night that Gilas Pilipinas would rather forget after torching the home squad with 28 points, shooting 11-of-24 and burying five threes.
Tanner Krebs, Mitch Creek, and Tom Wilson also chipped in the second half where the Boomers trailed by as many as 29 points.
Cone said there is a reason why Australia is one of the top teams in the world and that is because they have a deep talent pool.
“I thought we played really good, we did everything that we want defensively. We held guys down. But when they started to stretch the lead a little bit, got some open threes, and a couple of turnovers on our part, I think we just got deflated and lost our energy. It was hard to chase those guys,” said Cone.
“They’re the No. 6 team in the world, and it’s amazing that the players that they can just bring over and be that good. We had Pepper on our sight, but we couldn’t stop Pepper. Creek played really well, handled the ball well. Wilson played well."
Adding to Gilas' woes was their inability to hit the three-ball on a consistent basis after going 9-of-31 from afar against the Boomers, prompting Cone to now considering “simplifying their offense” for the next games.
“I thought we played a good first half. I felt like we should have had the lead at the end of the first half. We just didn’t make some of the shots,” said Cone.
“It’s been a struggle for us both games that we played shooting the ball. And we didn’t get some of the shots that we wanted. And we went down by five at halftime. But we felt we had a good shot. We came out third quarter, made a turnover right off the bat, and they turned it into a three-point play. And suddenly they were off to the races."
“Very, very painful here at home. Just doing that in front of the home crowd was tough,” said Cone.
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