Baldwin expects Gilas to rise to the challenge

CHANGSHA – Done with the first round, Gilas Pilipinas is now bracing for tougher battles versus Iran, Japan and India in the next round of the preliminaries of the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship here.

Coach Tab Baldwin said they’re far off from the form they wanted to be in, but he expected Gilas Pilipinas to rise to the challenge and find its place in the knockout round.

“We came here to make sure we make it to the second round, and we’re in the second round now. We need to do well in the second round to put ourselves in the quarterfinals. It’s all going to be tough games. We’re in a position to play these tough games,” said Baldwin.

“If erratic is the form that I was looking for, then we’re pretty well placed right there. But we’ve enough good positive to know that we can play well,” he added.

“We have high expectations for the next round and the remaining of the tournament. We got our job cut out for us, for the coaches, for the players over the next several games. We expect to rise to that challenge.”

Gilas Pilipinas expectedly tore apart Gulf region lightweight Kuwait, 110-64, Friday night and advanced to the next round in a bracket with Iran, Japan, India, Palestine and Hong Kong.

The top four in this group advance to the quarters versus the top four from among China, Qatar, South Korea, Lebanon, Qatar and Kazakhstan.