HANGZHOU - Gilas Pilipinas completed a comeback for the ages behind Justin Brownlee to stun host and defending champion China, 77-76, and advance to the gold-medal play of the 19th Asian Games men's basketball tournament Wednesday night.
Gilas Pilipinas vs China Asian Games recap
Brownlee was the man of the hour for the national team, hitting back-to-back threes that put Gilas in front in the final 23 seconds and silenced the partisan crowd at the Hangzhou Olympic Centre.
The beloved naturalized player finished with a game high 33 points, including 17 in the fourth period on 7-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc in the win that put the Philippines in the Asiad final for the first time since 1990.
"It was quite a miraculous win for us," said coach Tim Cone afterwards.
"We didn't look like we have any chance whatsoever, but I'm really proud of our players for continuing to battle and continuing to fight and find a way to come back in," added the national coach. "Of course, we couldn't have done it without Justin doing the thing he does."
The Filipinos will play Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Jordan in the gold medal match set on Friday.
The last time the country won the gold in the continental meet was in 1962, when Cone was only five years old, and four years before his family came over to the Philippines.
That Philippine team 61 years ago was led by the late great Carlos Loyzaga.
Outside of Brownlee, there were a lot of unsung heroes for Gilas.
There was Scottie Thompson who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez with eight points each, and of course, Kevin Alas, who came off the bench and scored all of his five points in the stretch run.
China, which led by as many as 46-26 late in the second period, had one final shot at reversing the outcome.
But coming off a timeout, the Chinese buckled under pressure as no one appeared willing to take the shot, before Zhenlin Zhang went for the win but misfired on the game-winner.
CJ Perez collared the rebound and then ran to his teammates as they celebrated at centercourt perhaps one of the greatest comebacks ever pulled off in Philippine basketball history.
The scores:
Philippines (77) - Brownlee 33, Thompson 13, Fajardo 8, Perez 8, Alas 5, Newsome 4, Oftana 4, Kouame 2, Ross 0, Lassiter 0.
China (76) - Zhao 18, Hu 10, Zhu 10, Wang 10, Zhao J 9, Hu J 8, Du 6, Zhang 4, Cui 1.
Quarterscores: 19-17; 48-30; 62-50; 77-76.
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