Our challenge at this point is to make sure we’re not an all-star team.

JUNE Mar Fajardo saves Gilas Pilipinas from a humiliating setback.

The star-studded Gilas Pilipinas squad prevailed in its first competitive friendly match against Alab Pilipinas, 98-95, at the Meralco gym Monday night, but left its coach unimpressed the way it pulled off the victory.

Gilas had to lean on their star power to squeak past the Renaldo Balkman-less Alab quintet with five-time Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo saving them in the crucial moments of the game.

National team coach Tim Cone rued their lack of team concept against the Asean Basketball League (ABL) squad and if not for Fajardo’s fourth-quarter heroics, it could have been easily a loss for the Nationals, who are preparing for the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

“Our challenge at this point is to make sure we’re not an all-star team. We can’t play like an all-star team, we have to bring more than just being bunch of good players playing together,” Cone said.

“That’s what all-star teams are. They bring a bunch of guys, they have limited practices, they play, they don’t have any concepts in terms of defense, not really desired to play defense and we don’t want to be like that. We need to be better than an all-star team. All-star team is not a good team. They’re a good collection of players but they’re not a good team.”

Fajardo saved Gilas against Alab as he unloaded 12 of his 25 points in the payoff period.

The San Miguel Beer center’s late-game explosion came at the right time when Alab Pilipinas, a one-time ABL champion, threatened to pull off an upset.

“At times we were pretty and at times we were pretty ugly. But the team we played is really talented. They’re really good and Renaldo Balkman didn’t even play so they’re a very good team.”

“Down the stretch, we did what other smart coaches would do and we rolled with June Mar. We got on his back and he won the game for us down the stretch. That’s going to be one of our philosophies in the SEA Games. We just have to make sure he’s well rested. We got a lot of guys to replace him in the game.”

Cone missed the services of Troy Rosario due to a minor Achilles injury while Kiefer Ravena, a late replacement in the 15-man pool taking the spot of the injured Jayson Castro, showed up but did not play after a bad fall in the NLEX practice.

“We missed Troy (Rosario) tonight. Troy is going to be a huge weapon for us. Kiefer has a back issue after a bad fall at practice. I would’ve played him if he could. I just think he’s a natural. He would pick up things and just be natural with it,” Cone said.

The Nationals and Alab Pilipinas will face off again next Monday for a second tune-up game.