Gilas young guns' evolution get the spotlight in Brownlee off-night vs New Zealand
MANILA, Philippines -- Saying Justin Brownlee had an uncharacteristic game Friday against New Zealand may be a massive understatement.
In Gilas Pilipinas’ 106-102 double-overtime defeat against the Tall Blacks, Brownlee mustered just five points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field, before fouling out after 35 minutes and 51 seconds of play.
His first attempt from the field came in the second quarter, and his first make came in the first overtime, while his second made shot came in the second overtime.
He also had costly turnovers in crunch time.
Naturally, the shots would have to come from others. And in this game, it was Gilas’ young guns who kept the ship afloat for the Philippines. Juan Gomez-de Liano and Kevin Quiambao each scored 23 points in the game, while Dwight Ramos had 18 markers. Carl Tamayo also produced 17 points.
After the game, Gilas head coach Tim Cone said that the young stars’ evolution and development are very evident in the game.
“Well, yeah, that's how you evolve a team, right? You try to win with your veterans and you develop your young guys. And our young guys have been developing over the last year and a half, two years. And every time they've come into a window, they've gotten better,” he said during the post-game press conference.
“When we first got them on the team, they were like 21 years old. Now they're 24, 25. So, they have evolved along with the team. So, that was the vision from the very beginning when we put this team together. That they, at one point, would be the main guys. And that may be coming a little more quickly than we thought,” he added.
Gilas trailed by as much as 12 points as New Zealand did not allow Brownlee comfortable looks from the field.
But the outside game of Tamayo and Quiambao, as well as the crafty plays of Ramos and Gomez-de Liano, kept Gilas in it.
Gomez-de Liano sent the game to overtime and pushed Gilas ahead in the first overtime period, but the Nationals could not capitalize.
Quiambao’s floater in the second overtime tied things around at 102-all, but it was the last field goal of the Philippines in the game.
Ultimately, clutch shots by Sam Mennenga and free throws by Jordan Ngatai and Shea Ili gave New Zealand the victory.
“They are certainly stepping up and playing at a much higher level than they were when they were first on the team. So, we're real proud of those young guys for continuing to improve,” Cone said.
“They both play in Korea, KQ and Carl. So, they get a lot of improvement there. And Juan is becoming one of the premier point guards in our league back in Manila. So, again, they have great futures ahead of them.”
Cone, however, said that the loss was a “huge disappointment.”
“Well, it would have been nice to be able to come down here and steal a game. That would have been special. And the fact that we got as close as we did, obviously is a huge disappointment.
Once you feel like it's in your grasp and you let it slip away, it makes it tough,” he said.
“We had chances in both overtimes to... I mean, the regulation had overtime to win that basketball game and we just came up short,” he added.
“So, bottom line was, our guys came to play. They spent an incredible amount of energy just keeping staying in the game. Went down by 12, got ahead by 7, I think. But again, we just couldn't hold it. We missed some free throws, probably fouled a few times that we shouldn't have. And that was really the story of the game.”
There will be a quick turnaround for Gilas as they take on Australia on Monday, 6:30 p.m., at the RAC Arena in Perth.
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