Blatche feels Gilas was ‘a lot better’ despite second loss to Turkey

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine men’s national basketball team lost a second straight tune-up game against Turkey on Friday, July 1, ahead of the FIBA Olympic Qualifiers in Manila next week.

After losing to the same team in Istanbul by 35 last week, Gilas put up a better fight on Friday and lost only by 8 despite trailing by 17 at one point in the third period. The national team even went ahead by 6, 25-19, in the first half.

“I feel like we got better, a lot better,” was what naturalized Filipino and Gilas big Andray Blatche said post game. Blatche led all scorers with 20 points and had 7 rebounds plus 5 assists.

“We executed, we played hard. Even when we got down, we didn’t panic, like we didn’t fall. We stayed to the plan and continued to execute.”

The Philippines managed to cut Turkey’s lead to 5 in the fourth period before their run fell short at the end game.

(READ: Gilas shows promise, but there’s much room for improvement)

Gilas is slotted in the same group as France and New Zealand in the Qualifiers while Turkey, Senegal, and Canada make up the other group. The Philippines will take on the French first on Tuesday, July 5.

“I feel like everything we did is a good preparation for France,” said the former NBA player Blatche. “Coach Tab is a very smart coach. I’m quite sure everything he did was to get us prepared for France.

“We’ll come in tomorrow, going to start doing film and personnel on France and get ready for the 5th.”

Blatche also said that he doesn’t have a message for the France national team and is instead “more focused on us (Gilas), on what we got to do to win.”

The 29-year-old Syracuse, New York native also said that the national team will need the support of the Filipino crowd next week.

“We’re going to need ya’ll to come out on the 5th and support us.”

He later added, “Like I said before, I think the fans are going to be the sixth man for us, give us energy.”

Even Gilas head coach Tab Baldwin is excited about the energy they will receive from the crowd, saying that the reception they heard on Friday against Turkey was a nice preview of things to come.

“It was pretty good. They made noise when it counted in the second half and I think they helped us. If this is a small taste of what’s coming, it’s going to be great for us.” – Rappler.com