HANGZHOU - There was a fleeting moment in Gilas Pilipinas' game against China when Tim Cone began losing hope of coming back from the grave and was ready to forget about winning the basketball gold in the 19th Asian Games.
Cone on Gilas vs China
It was his players who never lost the will to win, however.
“I'd lose hope the last what, 30 or 23 seconds. I thought for sure we're gonna lose that game," admitted Cone.
"But the good news was, even though I lost hope, our players didn't lose hope. They came back fighting and battling. So give credit to our players. They were amazing."
Amazing these bunch of Gilas are as it rallied from a huge 20-point deficit to frustrate China and earn the last ticket to the gold-medal round of the men's basketball competitions.
Justin Brownlee was at the forefront of that spirited Gilas rally as he nailed two backbreaking three pointers inside the final 60 seconds that snuffed out the life out of the dethroned champions.
Brownlee tallied 17 in the fourth quarter and finished with a game-high 33 points on 7-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc to typify Gilas' own brand of Never-say-Die.
"This is the kind of player that he is. A very clutch player," said Cone of Brownlee.
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