GILAS Pilipinas will have to do even better if it is to get past a tall, athletic Senegal team in its second game in the Heyuan WUS International Basketball Tournament Friday night at the Jiangman En Ping Sports gymnasium.
Gilas vs Senegal preview in China pocket tournament
The Filipinos and Senegalese head to the 8 p.m. game both undefeated in the week-long pocket tournament.
Behind Jamie Malonzo, Dwight Ramos, and newbies AJ Edu and Rhenz Abando, Gilas turned back Iran, 76-65, in its opening game Thursday night.
Senegal also beat Iran almost by the same winning margin during the meet opener, 85-75, giving Gilas exactly an idea of what to expect when it faces the African team.
“Senegal is a big, strong and tall team, so it’s going to be a big challenge for us,” said Reyes after the win against Iran.
“That’s why I wanted to rest some of my guys in the fourth quarter to prepare (for tomorrow). Hopefully, it will be enough, a lot of endurance for tomorrow’s game.”
But in doing so, the Filipinos didn’t finish their game against the Iranians the way Reyes wanted them.
From as high as a 19-point lead inside the final seven minutes of play, Iran managed to cut the deficit to a single deficit, before Edu scored on a two-handed dunk for the game’s final score.
Limping its way home wasn’t the kind of finish Reyes was expecting.
“I’m very disappointed how we finished the ball game,” admitted the Gilas coach as the Filipinos committed several turnovers to finish the game.
Curiously, the national team also struggled in the opening quarter with Ramos carrying the brunt for Gilas, which trailed, 23-21, going to the second period.
“It was a bad start and a very bad finish for us. I think we only played a good second and third quarter,” said Reyes. “We played in the middle part of the game, but we need to start games better and finish games better.”
Gilas will take a break on Saturday before facing Senegal anew on Sunday and Iran the following day.
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