THE promise is certainly there. It's just that Gilas Pilipinas will have to find a way to put all of those potential into good use.
Ray Parks on Gilas loss to Japan
Bobby Ray Parks surely acknowledged that after the Philippines failed to make the quarterfinals of the 2022 Fiba Asia Cup after losing to Japan, 102-81, on Tuesday.
"We play hard, we play with puso. We just need to channel that in the right manner," he said.
Parks topped the Philippines with his 16 points and three assists as he faced off against familiar faces in the Japan B.League, among them his Nagoya Diamond Dolphins teammates Tenketsu Harimoto and Yutaro Suda.
Unfortunately, Gilas' foul-prone ways, where it was whistled for 21 fouls that led to Japan making 23 of its 25 free throws, on top of the Akatsuki Five's pinpoint 13-of-35 clip from downtown turned out to be a recipe for disaster for the Filipinos.
It also led to the Philippines missing out on the quarterfinals of the continental tournament for the first time since 2007 as this crew ended up at ninth place.
"We fell short of the goal, but at the end of the day, we give our best," sighed Parks, fully aware of the difficulties that the national team faced from losing naturalized center Ange Kouame to a partial ACL tear a month before the tourney to Dwight Ramos suffering from shin splints just before the Jakarta tilt.
"It was a learning curve for us. There's a lot more stuff that we need to learn, but we're a young group and we just have to take this loss on the chin."
When you're down, there's really no way to go but up and Parks is hopeful that the upward trend would soon be on Gilas' horizon.
"Sayang lang pero bawi kami sa next window," he quipped, with the second round of the 2023 Fiba World Cup Asian qualifiers up next for the Philippines.
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