Gilas sweeps Hawks; Lebanon suspended

MANILA, Philippines – Gilas Pilipinas bucked the cold weather and cold outside shooting to sweep Hawkes Bay Hawks, 73-70, Saturday at Pettigrew Arena in Napier, New Zealand.

With their outside shooting turning cold from hot in their first meeting, Gilas clamped down on defense in their rematch to survive the physical play of the Hawks.

“Struggled from the outside today but found a way to eke out a 73-70 W (win) in a defensively intense game. Learning from the physical Kiwi game,” Gilas head coach Chot Reyes said on his Twitter account (@coachot) after the win.

The Filipinos still found a way to beat the Hawks despite playing under a nine-degree cold weather condition. They applied what they have learned so far under Hawks and former New Zealand national team head coach Tab Baldwin from his defensive philosophy to complete the two-game sweep. 

The 10-day training camp will continue today (Sunday) with a tougher game against the NBL All Stars culled from the eliminated teams of the ongoing season to be reinforced by some foreign imports.

Meanwhile, a potential tough second round opponent in FIBA Asia Men’s Basketball Championship has been struck out of competition following a suspension from the world governing body.

Lebanon, which has been a familiar Phl opponent bannered by international game veteran Fadi El Khatib and naturalized and former NBA center Loren Woods, has been suspended for infighting within their national cage federation.

Lebanon’s Daily Star reported that their NSA failed to resolve their internal crisis that stemmed from the legal cases filed by Amchit and Mouttahed against the governing boday, as well as all the parties signing the MOU proposed by the Asian federation and the Sports Ministry even after FIBA extended the Friday 1 pm deadline to 6 pm.

After learning their fate, the Lebanon national team playing in Jones Cup in Taiwan immediately condemned the internal infightings that led to their suspension and threatened not to play.

“We will not play anymore games until they go home and leave us to play for our national team. We will stand against those who are hurting our lives, because we all make a living from the game,” the Lebanon players said in a statement.  

“We call on President Michel Sleiman and head of the Olympic committee Jean Hammam to act quickly to save the national team and keep our dream alive to qualify for the World Championship.”

Tournament organizers prevailed upon them but Lebanon lost two straight since the landmark decision falling to Jordan, 67-69, and to US selection,  66-109, to drop to 2-5 win-loss mark and seventh spot in the nine-team field.

Reyes, meanwhile, was not all too worried about Lebanon’s case.

“Not too worried about Lebanon’s suspension because we’re too focused on ourselves first,” Reyes said on Twitter.

“Iraq is a tall, tough team we know very little of,” he added referring to the Middle East team that is reportedly set to replace Lebanon in Group B with Japan, Hong Kong and Qatar.