FOSHAN, China – Gilas Pilipinas suffered a huge blow in its bid to reach the second round of the FIBA World Cup following a disheartening 62-108 loss to Italy on Saturday, September 1. 

Hoping to stun the Italians to remain on track of their goal of winning at least 2 of their 3 games in Group D, the Filipinos instead found themselves absorbing one of their worst international losses in recent memory.  

And that’s no thanks to a woeful shooting performance that saw the Philippines knock in only 3 of 23 attempts from downtown as it missed its first 17 three-pointers. 

The first triple the Filipinos made came at the 7:03 mark of the final quarter with Kiefer Ravena ending the drought, but the game was all but over at that time with the Italians leading 90-46.

Add to that its 23 turnovers, the Philippines looked doomed to lose. 

“Our problem was we had early turnovers – we fed their runs with our own turnovers – and we couldn’t make our outside shots, which to me was really key to beating a big team like Italy,” rued coach Yeng Guiao. 

Italy, on the other hand, barely committed mistakes and made each possession count. 

Behind NBA veteran Danilo Gallinari and EuroLeague stalwart Luigi Datome, the Italians drained 15 of their 31 three-point attempts and finished with 30 assists – 20 more than the Filipinos. 

“They moved the ball really well. Anywhere or everywhere the ball lands, it’s a threat. So we just need to keep recovering on whoever is going to catch that ball,” Guiao said.

“The problem there is we did not have that kind of speed. There’s always a problem when you rotate and your bigs are not able to keep up with that kind of rotation.” 

“Somebody’s always going to be open on the third, fourth, maybe on the fifth pass. Whereas on the other hand, they just kept switching us,” added Guiao, who had tipped the match as a “must-win” game for the Filipinos to gain a shot at advancing to the next round. 

“Their guards could guard our bigs and their bigs could guard our guards. It’s just really a dead end for us especially if you’re not making your three-point shots.” 

Dwelling on the blowout loss, though, is not an option for the Philippines considering its next assignment is tournament favorite and world No. 4 Serbia on Monday, September 2. 

Serbia, touted as the strongest threat to reigning two-time world champion USA, proved worthy of the hype surrounding it by dealing Angola a sound 46-point beating in its tourament opener. 

“I guess we just have to gather ourselves again and be able to recover physically and be able to find additional motivation to be able to play Serbia,” Guiao said. – Rappler.com