'Motivated' Gilas Pilipinas battles South Sudan, China in classification for Olympic shot

MANILA, Philippines – The door to the second round of the FIBA World Cup may have closed for Gilas Pilipinas, but an Olympic berth has kept the squad motivated for the classification phase.

Ending the group stage without a victory, the Philippines must win its classification matches against South Sudan and China as it tries to finish as the highest-placed Asian squad, a feat that merits a spot in the Paris Games.

The Filipinos will face South Sudan on Thursday, August 31, before they wrap up their World Cup campaign against familiar foe China on Saturday, September 2 – both at the Araneta Coliseum.

“We’re going to put it together and try to get these [next] two,” said Jordan Clarkson. “We know what it means and what it means for the country. We’ll leave everything out on the floor.”

One of the four debutants in this World Cup, world No. 62 South Sudan has exceeded expectations as it narrowly missed out on a seat in the second round, finishing third in Group B with a 1-2 record.

The Bright Stars absorbed a narrow 101-96 overtime loss to Puerto Rico in its opener then gave China an 89-69 beating for its first-ever World Cup win before they suffered a 115-83 rout at the hands of powerhouse Serbia.

China, on the other hand, has been underwhelming despite the addition of Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kyle Anderson, losing to Serbia, South Sudan, and Puerto Rico by a combined 80 points.

Still, Team Dragon could turn into a different beast when they go up against the Filipinos as they repeatedly beat Gilas Pilipinas in past encounters, the last coming in the 2018 Asian Games.

“We’re not coming out here trying to lose but we know these two teams are good,” said Clarkson. “They’ve been put together well with size and everything, so we’re ready to compete and fight.”

“We’re super motivated. From the beginning we’ve been motivated.”

No Asian team advanced to the second round, leaving the race for the Olympic berth wide open.

Japan is the only Asian squad with a win at 1-2, while Lebanon, Iran, and Jordan all ended the group stage with 0-3 records like the Philippines and China. – Rappler.com

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Delfin Dioquino

Delfin Dioquino dreamt of being a PBA player, but he did not have the skills to make it. So he pursued the next best thing to being an athlete – to write about them. He took up journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and joined Rappler as soon as he graduated in 2017.