Norwood says no excuse for Gilas poor play vs HK

MANILA, Philippines – Gabe Norwood was one of the few positives that emerged in the worst performance put up by Gilas Pilipinas in the 2013 Manila FIBA Asia Men’s Basketball Championship.

The Gilas’ primary wing defender turned on the heat in the final three minutes scoring on a tough turnaround jumper and completed a three-point play off a steal to help avert what could have been a disastrous Hong Kong upset on Wednesday night.

“First and foremost, hats off to Hong Kong. They came out and pushed us, and really challenged us to come out to compete and rebound the ball great. They really out-hustled us for three and a half quarters,” said Norwood, who finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds in the ugly win.

Before they played Hong Kong, Gilas was given a clearer path to the semifinals with Qatar knocking Chinese Taipei off the top spot in Group E with a 71-68 victory. That gave Gilas the chance to avoid the defending champion China in the quarterfinals with a win over Hong Kong.

The energy in the last two victories was not there at the start against Hong Kong. They needed to gut it out in the end to pull off the much needed victory.

“We’re all pros. It would have been different if this is a college tournament – we’re all getting giggly and stuff like that,” Norwood said.  â€œBut at the end of the day that is not an excuse whether that was the case or not.”

They are fortunate that this came earlier than later in the tournament where an erratic start such as that can cost them the game and the chance to bring the country back to the World Basketball Championships.

“We got to come out and be professional and really execute the way we should have night in and night out no matter the opponent,” Norwood said.

“I would hate to use that as an excuse.”

And they really should be.  Because the real tournament begins on Friday.