MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas suffered a second straight loss in warm-up games for its coming FIBA Asia campaign, yielding to the tall and organized Estonian national team, 80-90, in Day Two of the Toyota Four Nations Cup at Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, Estonia Friday night (early Saturday morning in Manila).
The Nationals showed some improvement from their 27-point blowout loss to The Netherlands the previous day, waging a fourth-quarter fightback before eventually reeling down with their 10-point defeat against the home team.
Coach Tab Baldwin and his training pool were to wind up their Estonian journey versus Iceland late last night.
While Gilas is preparing for the FIBA Asia Championship starting Sept. 23 in Changsha, China, the Dutch, Estonians and the Icelanders are priming up for the EuroBasket that fires off Sept. 5.
Naturalized player Andray Blatche, still in the process of losing extra poundage, came through with 16 points, five assists and three rebounds while Jason Castro (two-of-three from the three-point area) and Terrence Romeo contributed 13 and 10 markers, respectively.
Dondon Hontiveros, JC Intal and Moala Tautuaa made their Estonian meet debut while Gary David, Aldrech Ramos and Jimmy Alapag took turns on the sideline with Ranidel de Ocampo who’s still nursing a hamstring injury.
Janar Talts scored 20 points to lead the Estonians who set the pace almost throughout, enjoying their biggest margin at 23 points, 49-26.
But the Filipinos didn’t yield without a fight.
Behind clutch baskets by Castro, Hontiveros and Blatche, Gilas came to within nine, 86-77, with over two minutes left to play.
But the host team efficiently played the clock and held on to notch a second straight win in the three-day, four-nation tourney.
Not helping the cause of Team Phl was Calvin Abueva fouling out with 5:24 left to play. The Alaska Milk hotshot produced eight points and three rebounds.
The sweet-shooting Estonian team, cheered on by a sizable home crowd, took the first quarter at 33-18 and the half at 55-35.