MANILA, Philippine — Leave it to head coach Yeng Guiao to call Team Pilipinas’ erratic shooting an aberration.
But count him as the last person to give up on his team.
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“[The] first half was just really bad shooting percentage, especially from 3-points. I think we were six percent, and to think these are the best shooters in the country,” Guiao offered shortly after the Philippines pulled the rug from under Qatar in a closed-door FIBA World Cup qualifying game at the Big Dome on Monday night.
“That’s really an aberration,” he said of the team’s collective clip. “It's like a hangover from the Iran game. Nagtuloy ang alat sa 3-point shooting.”
The Qataris had a 4-for-4 start from deep while the Filipinos shot a forgettable 1-for-5 early into the game. By hafltime, the hosts were 1-for 15.
Good thing Guiao and the Nationals were afforded with 15 minutes to regain their bearings and recalibrate.
“I told them at halftime to take the normal shots they were taking, [to not] mind the percentages,” Guiao said of the huddle during the intermission. “[I told them to be] just focused on running the sets, executing the game plan.”
Guiao, ever the cunningly patient mentor on the sidelines, noted that among the big factor to the turnaround was patience.
“Pinakaba tayo lahat talaga ng mga players. Kahit ako sabi ko, ano nangyayari. But sabi ko lang, let's just be patient, stick to the game plan. It is almost impossible, if [we] play good defense, that they sustain 54 percent 3-point shooting. So we just waited for them to miss those shots.”
“We just kept running the whole game, we kept the people inside fresh and used a lot of our players. We rotated all 12 players and kept everybody fresh so they can put pressure on defense and they can run on offense,” Guiao shared.
And the plan worked like a charm.
Looking like a totally different team, the Filipinos made a run for the lead. Once behind by 17 points, the hosts mounted a 17-6 rally to retake the lead with the third-period clock reading 3:19.
And it seemed that the next step of Guiao’s grand scheme was for his wards to really believe in themselves. After all, they had no one but themselves to lean on considering that only 220 people were at the Big Dome to witness the match: 30 belonging to the Qatari delegation, 30 from Team Philippines, 80 members of the press covering it, another 30 from FIBA, and 50 VIPs.
“It's kind of surreal … it felt really weird na naglalaro ka sa sarili mong bansa or in your home stadium, playing another country and there's nobody there cheering you, Guiao said of the set-up. “Kami-kami na lang nagchi-cheer sa sarili namin, kaya maingay ang bench. But after a while you get used to it.”
Indeed, they looked they got used to it. For one more quarter, they controlled the pace. For one more period, they sat squarely on the driver seat.
“I think the big difference was they really wanted to win,” Guiao said of his players.
And boy they did.
Team Pilipinas takes on Kazakhstan next when the fifth window of the continental contest's second round opens in November.