TIM Lewis lamented Qatar veered away from what it had been doing right in the first half, costing the visitors what could've been a big upset over Team Pilipinas in the FIBA World Cup qualifiers on Monday night.
The Qataris lost, 92-81, after playing well in the first half that saw them lead the home team by as many as 17 points, 37-20, in a game played behind closed doors at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
"We did a great job in the first half, made shots and played as a team," said the British coach, who served as consultant to the Philippine team in last year's Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia.
"Then in the second half, we just ran some bad things and had some bad decisions."
Team Pilipinas managed to get its act together starting the third when the Qataris, missing some of their key players due to injury, unraveled.
The Flipinos held the visitors to just 12 points in the third quarter and outscored them, 53-29, in the entire second half to pull off the come-from-behind win.
"We're just sloppy. We don't play together, we dont share the ball, the team is just relatively inexperienced playing together and there are guys who are playing for the first time at this level of basketball," said Lewis.
"That really hurts us down the stretch," added the Qatat coach whose team fell to a 2-6 record after losing back-to-back games in the fourth window of the qualifiers.
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