By REYNALD MAGALLON AND NIKOLE JAVIER
Gilas Pilipinas’ redemption bid took a huge blow and was met with criticism after falling to a naturalized player-laden Cambodia, 79-68, in its second game in the men’s 5-on-5 basketball tournament in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games on Thursday, May 11, at the Elephant Hall 2 at the Morodok Techo National Stadium.
The Nationals struggled to contain the bigger and quicker Cambodians who had five of their six naturalized players scoring in double-digits and suffered their worst defeat in the biennial meet for a 1-1 record in Group A standings.
The Cambodians, mockingly billed as “Team USA” in the region, stay unbeaten in two games.
Among those who expressed their disgust over Gilas’ “disgraceful game” was Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan.
“What a disgraceful game for Gilas. An ignominious defeat which will be etched deeply in infamy. SBP – what happened?,” the tweet said.
The tension between both teams arose when the Cambodians called for a late timeout despite already being up by a reassuring 10-point lead en route to a sure win, with 20.7 ticks left in the contest.
As of posting, it hasn’t been confirmed if the Big Boss’ Twitter account was hacked or the tweet simply came out of his dismay over the loss and of his own federation.
All is not lost however for Gilas as the Filipinos can still advance to the semifinals if it wins against Singapore in its final game on Saturday, May 13.
Darrin Dorsey, who also led Cambodia to a gold medal finish in the 3×3 event, proved to be the biggest thorn to the side of Gilas, dropping 17 of his 22 points in the first half where Cambodia took immediate control and built a huge 16-point lead, 47-31, at the half.
Sayeed Pridgett added 17 points while Oscar Lopes added a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds as Cambodia prevailed in the highly emotional game that also saw some of the Gilas coaches and players figuring in a verbal tussle against the coach of the host country and some of its players.
A slow start spelled doom for Gilas as the Filipinos trailed by double digits early on and struggled to find anything going against Cambodia in the first two quarters. Justin Brownlee’s own shooting struggles even typified the cold outing in the first half, going scoreless on a 0-of-7 clip from the field.
Gilas did show some semblance of life in the second half, cutting the lead down to 10 points several times but just couldn’t get over the hump with the Cambodians finding answers to stop the run.
Christian Standhardinger tried to carry the fight for Gilas with 14 points while Brownlee still wound up with 10 after ending the game on a 3-of-13 shooting from the field.
