GILAS Pilipinas coach Tim Cone admitted they were surprised with how well Hong Kong played in the first half of their Fiba Asia Cup 2025 qualifier on Thursday.
Cone was glad that the players responded in a big way in the second half where they outscored Hong Kong, 30-9, in the third period to finally break the game open. The visiting team ended up winning comfortably, 94-64.
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Cone added overconfidence against a relatively lighter opponent was definitely not the reason for Gilas' flat perfomance in the first half.
“I thought Hong Kong, China came out and played a great first half. Shocked us,” said Cone on an opponent that had to go through the pre-qualifiers in order to play for a spot in the Fiba Asia Cup.
Cone made mention of the play of Shiu Wah Leung, Oliver Xu, and Ricky Yang, saying they kept Hong Kong in the game.
“We didn’t think that they would play as well as they did. They really surprised us with their ability to shoot the ball and Yang to be able to get to the rim. We were quite surprised,” said Cone.
Cone observed that there was still a feeling-out stage during the first half in the team that was recently formed and committed to a four-year program, but was happy that team played solid defense in the end.
“I thought we came out a little tentative. But in the second half, I thought we kinda relaxed a little bit, played better, defended better, and got a little bit of a run. Our crowd helped us gain some momentum and we were lucky to get a run and take it through,” said Cone.
Cone also noted the presence of the Filipino crowd that got them going in the second half.
“We’ve seen this through the World Cup and everywhere we’ve gone. We always travel very well because we always have fans. And that’s a big advantage that we have with the other teams. No matter where we play, there’s a crowd that is behind us and cheering.”
“We know they spent their hard-earned money to watch the game. We truly appreciate them. I thought they were the reasons we came out there in the second half, made some nice plays, and they really got cheering hard and it kinda lifted our spirits and we got some momentum. That keyed our runaway in the third quarter,” said Cone.
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