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MANILA, Philippines – Chot Reyes said “hope is still alive” for Gilas Pilipinas. Mathematically, it is.
Clinching a Paris Olympics berth as the highest-placed Asian team and even reaching the second round remain achievable goals for the Philippines even after it absorbed back-to-back losses to open the FIBA World Cup.
But those feats require the Filipinos to pull off a gigantic upset.
Nipped by Dominican Republic and stunned by Angola, Gilas Pilipinas can still salvage its Group A campaign against world No. 10 Italy on Tuesday, August 29, at the Araneta Coliseum.
A win over the Azzurri, whose aura of invincibility wore off after they bowed to the Dominicans, will put the Filipinos back in the mix for the Olympic race between Asian squads, which Japan leads after it beat Finland in Group E.
The Akatsuki shocked Utah Jazz star Lauri Markkanen and the world No. 24 Wolf Pack to become the first Asian team to break through in this World Cup.
“We just need to focus on the next game. The objective is to get to the Olympics so no matter how flickering that hope is, that hope is still alive,” Reyes said.
“We have to keep our heads up and find a way to play our best in the next game.”
To have a clearer shot at Paris, though, the Philippines must qualify for the second round.
Squads that make it to the next round of the group stage will finish the lowest at 16th place, while teams relegated to the classification phase will be ranked between the 17th to 32nd spots.
In order to advance, the Philippines has to defeat Italy by a certain number of points and hopes for Dominican Republic to beat Angola.
That scenario will see the Dominicans top Group A with a 3-0 card and the Philippines, Italy, and Angola figure in a three-way logjam at 1-2 – triggering a tiebreak that will be decided by point difference between tied teams.
Between the three squads, Italy owns the highest point difference with +14 followed by Angola (-4) and the Philippines (-10).
It only means that the Filipinos need to win by at least 13 points to erase the Italians’ superior point difference and secure a top-two finish in Group A, which merits a spot in the second round.
Winless in its last seven World Cup matches dating back to previous edition in China, there is no better time for Gilas Pilipinas to snap out of its funk. – Rappler.com
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