Gilas Pilipinas in a surreal ‘won’ game

This article was originally published on Aug. 31, 2014 in thefilipinoconnection.net

MANILA, Philippines – Believe it or not.

A three-point loss by the Philippines over a tall European team, Croatia. In overtime. Versus a former World Cup bronze medalist.

At the World Cup?

This Southeast Asian country was expected to lose, quite frankly, to this European powerhouse, ranked 16th in the world. But in this way, just by three points?

How surreal.

How unlikely that the Filipinos could have won this game – had a 6’2? lefty named Jeffrei Chan convert a challenged 3-point shot over two tall Croatian defenders at the end of regulation, 71-all. How it went into that tie? Jayson Castro drove and made a floater from the foul line with 39 seconds left. He’s 5’11?. The Philippines is the smallest team in this FIBA World Cup that had just started in four cities in Spain.

Croatia winning over world no. 34 the Philippines, in overtime? Really?

Really. In the extra session, and with Croatia up 79-75 with 19 ticks left, naturalized Filipino Andray Blatche (height: 6’11?) nailed a triple from the parking lot for a 79-78 score. And even as Croatia’s 6’10? forward Damjan Rudez made both free throws, a 3-point heave by Castro just missed. The game could have been forced into a second overtime.

Leads of 23-9 and 33-19 in the first and second quarters, respectively, were expected from Croatia. A rout of a bigger score was even expected.

But when the Filipinos’ defensive rotations over the taller Croatians got tighter towards the end game, and the outside shots went in, there was a ballgame.

The thrill started with Chan’s 3 over 6’7? Dario Saric for 64-59 with 4:39 left. Then 6’4? power forward Jean Marc Pingris made a spin move and scored underneath for 64-61. Then at the 3:16 mark, Blatche made a triple to tie the score at 64!

After 6’11? center Luka Zoric made two free throws off a Gabe Norwood foul, Chan was fouled in his 3-point attempt by Saric and he made all three free throws. At the 2:49 mark in regulation, the Philippines led for the first time, 67-66! A follow-up by Blatche off a blocked attempt of his furthered the Filipino fans’ frenzy, 69-66. (The Filipinos had leads in the ballgame in all of 59 seconds.)

The sense of urgency from the Croatians followed. Krunoslav Simon, a 6’5? shooting guard, made a three and Saric used his size to follow up his own missed shot to give the lead back to Croatia, 71-69.

Then it was Castro’s moment with his floater over the taller Saric. Then Chan’s missed 3-pointer at the buzzer, with him lying down in disbelief, catching his breath over this thrill he and fellow Filipinos provided the Croatians. The overtime furthered the drama that surprisingly opened this year’s FIBA World Cup with a bang.

Filipino hoop fans just simply wanted their players, like it was in the 1950s, to show heart amid their disadvantages in height and body mass. (Filipinos’ tagline is, in Filipino, “Laban Pilipinas! Puso! [Philippines, fight with heart!])

For a team whose “taller” players we easily pushed around inside the paint, whose guards’ drives to the basket were met by taller players’ outstretched arms, whose fans dwarfed an arena in Sevilla with Tagalog howls and English chants of defense, and whose armaments against are quickness, outside shooting and hustle, the Philippines provided the biggest surprise in day 1 of this FIBA World Cup.

“It is not a case of Croatia playing poorly, as it played its usual game,” says a Spanish-speaking commentator, in English, in the official FIBA-produced television coverage of the match. “It was a tremendous performance by the Philippines,” noting that this is the country’s return to the world stage after hosting the tournament in 1978.

All the Philippines wants are two wins in Group B to make it for a sixth game which is a spot in the knockout round-of-16 in Barcelona.

All die-hard fans of a basketball-crazy nation had prayed for are fighting games like this, no matter how surreal the outcome went – to the world’s, and to Filipinos’, surprise.

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Editor’s note: The author teaches at the University of Santo Tomas. His views do not reflect those of Philstar.com.