BOCAUE – The gritty Gilas Pilipinas rally that fell short against Jordan is part of the growing pain the team had to go through heading to its FIBA World Cup campaign in August.
Bobby Ray Parks said it was unfortunate the Filipinos couldn’t get the endgame breaks they needed to get past Jordan on Monday night, 91-90, in the final window of the Asian qualifiers at the Philippine Arena.
READ: Clarkson or Brownlee? Chot gives take
The host had multiple chances at completing a come-from-behind win against the Jordanians, but missed all of them, including a last-second attempt by Parks at a game winner that simply refused to fall.
“It’s just Dwight [Ramos] passed me the ball, and ah, I wish I could have made that shot,” said Parks afterwards. “But it’s God’s plan, a growing pain that we should never put ourselves in such another position anyway.”
Parks finished with eight points and was a key player on the floor when the Filipinos overhauled a 25-point deficit in the first half.
And he cooled down Dar Tucker in the second half after the naturalized player went firing with guns blazing in the opening half with 12 points.
“He (Tucker) definitely challenged me,” said Parks of the task given him by Reyes to take on the hot shooting guard starting the second half.
After taking care of business on defense, the Filipinos began to find their range and put the pressure on the Jordanians heading home.
Too bad, it wasn’t meant to be.
“We have multiple chances of winning the game, the three-point shot I wished I could have made it in the corner from JB (Justine Brownlee) on an offensive rebound, Scottie,” he said, obviously referring to Scottie Thompson’s missed free throws with 31 seconds left.
“But at the end of the day, these are just growing pains and excited ako on what the future holds for this team.”
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
