GOGA Bitadze had only good things to say about Gilas Pilipinas after Georgia dropped out of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament on Thursday night in Riga, Latvia.
Though Georgia came out with the win, 96-94, it was Gilas Pilipinas which ultimately booked a ticket to the semifinals by virtue of superior quotient as the 23rd ranked basketball nation needed to win by 19 to boot the Philippines out of contention.
A fiery start for Bitadze and the crew had them up by 20 early in the second quarter, but the Philippines stormed back behind the heroics of Justin Brownlee, Dwight Ramos, and bench spark plugs CJ Perez, and Carl Tamayo.
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The Philippines even had a chance to tie the game late, but ultimately decided against it with the mission now accomplished.
“Guys fought hard. We got ourselves in this situation, and the Philippines came out ready to play. We hit them first, but they came back, made some shots. Shout out to the Philippines, great game,” Bitadze said.
“We really fought hard but it wasn’t enough. Sometimes it’s not enough.”
'They're A Great Basketball Team'
Bitadze, the 18th overall pick of the 2019 NBA draft, played like what’s expected of him. The Orlando Magic center finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks as he gave Gilas problems in the paint all game long.
But the third quarter turned out to be their undoing as they gave 31 points to Gilas in that stretch, allowing the Philippines to wipe out a 20-point deficit - and erasing the hope of a Georgia blowout win.
For Bitadze, this is exactly why you can't give hungry teams like the Philippines any chance of a comeback.
“This is a 40-minute game. We can’t have ups and downs. We have to be still like water,” he stated.
“They made some really tough shots, we tried to guard them but I guess it wasn't enough. We weren't locked in. Sometimes, this happens when you're not locked in against these kind of teams,” he added.
“The Philippines, they're a great basketball team. So they came out (of the half), and they fed off our mistakes, and we made a lot of mistakes on defense in the third quarter.”
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