ONE STEP CLOSER: Gilas Pilipinas faces Brazil in OQT semis

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone warns his wards of getting too emotional after advancing in the semifinal of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia.

The decorated mentor wants Gilas to stay focused on the task ahead: A knockout match against a formidable Brazilian squad today at the Arena Riga.

Gilas marches back into battle at 8:30 p.m. (Philippine time) to face Group B top seed world No. 12 Brazil in the crossover semis.

Host Latvia, which topped Group A, dukes it out against Cameroon on Sunday for the other final spot.

Cone is aware that drawing closer to booking a ticket to the Paris Olympics and ending a 52-year absence from the Summer Games puts heightened excitement and overwhelming emotions on his players.

He would have to tone it down.

“I hope that’s not coming through our minds. We’re very process-driven,” Cone said.

“We want to stay at what’s in front of us we don’t want to look at the end zone, the end game and think, “Wow! What happens if we could make it to Paris?” Obviously, the country will go bonkers. The country would go absolutely crazy. But that’s a long way away.”

Gilas finished the group stage with a 1-1 win-loss record for a three-way tie with Latvia and Georgia, which beat the Filipinos, 94-96, last Thursday.

Latvia and Gilas emerged as the top two teams in Group A because of better point differentials.

Against Brazil, Cone doesn’t want to see a repeat of Gilas’ game against Georgia, which came just 20 hours after a stunning 89-80 victory over world No. 6 Latvia.

“I think that was just one of the problems about us coming in to play this game, we were just so euphoric. We couldn’t get over the euphoria of beating Latvia. And all texts and social media going on, about what’s going on in Manila, I think that really set the guys back,” he said.

“If we want to continue to look forward like that I think that’s gonna be a problem for us.”

Survivors of the semis pairings square off in a winner-take-all final on Sunday (12 a.m., Philippine time).

“We got this step (advancing to the semis) done and now we got another step to take and I think that’s where the focus is. And that’s hopefully where the focus is of our guys,” Cone said.

Brazil and Cameroon ended the group stage in a three-way tie at 1-1 with Montenegro, which was eliminated due to an inferior point differential.

The Brazilians are coming off a 74-77 loss to Cameroon Friday.

Brazil is parading former National Basketball Association (NBA) players Bruno Caboclo, the 20th overall pick in the 2014 Draft, and Marcelo Huertas, who played for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Good loss

The architect of Gilas’ snapping of a 61-year gold medal drought in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year felt relieved his team lost by a small margin that allowed them a passage to the semis.

Georgia needed to win by at least 19 points to make it to the next round after suffering a blowout loss to Latvia in the opener.

The Georgians actually gave Gilas a scare after leading by 20 following a 16-0 start only to get spoiled by the Filipinos’ fightback in the second half.

For the 25-time Philippine Basketball Association champion coach, it was one of those rare times that he would gladly accept a loss.

“It’s the first time I felt good about losing,” Cone said.

“I really just want to compliment our guys. They went down 20 and it could’ve easily been panic time but they worked their way back into the game,” he added.

Gilas mustered the fightback despite losing center Kai Sotto with 6:42 left in the second quarter after hurting his rib following a collision with Georgia guard Joe Thomasson.

“They really showed their resilience. We lost Kai Sotto early and never got him back in the game,” Cone said.

“But the fact that we lost him as well and still be able to fight our way back in the game, got some really good bench production from Carl Tamayo and CJ Perez and Kevin Quiambao and Japeth Aguilar, our veteran and our captain, really stepped up in the void and gave us big minutes in what would’ve been Kai’s minutes.”

Sotto’s test results, fortunately, showed no signs of fracture but his status for the semis match against Brazil will be a game-time decision, according to Gilas team manager Richard del Rosario.

Justin Brownlee flirted with another triple-double, putting up 28 points on an efficient 11-of-16 field goal shooting and added eight rebounds and eight assists for Gilas.

Dwight Ramos had 16 points, Perez chipped in with 14 while Chris Newsome scored 13 markers and dished out six assists.

Gilas went down, 20-40, after a Thomasson jumper with 7:26 left in the second period. But the Filipinos outscored the Georgians 31-19 in the third quarter to enter the final period tied at 74.

Gilas kept the game close but decided not to take the win by forcing overtime.

“We couldn’t go into overtime. We had an opportunity to shoot a three at the end to try and get us into overtime and play. But we just felt we didn’t want them to give an opportunity to try to extend the lead in overtime,” Cone said.

Goga Bitadze tried to force an extension by deliberately attempting to score Georgia’s own basket in the final seconds after Newsome missed his second free throw shot.

Under FIBA rules, an own goal will only count if it’s accidental.

Alexander Mamukelashvili finished with 26 points while Bitadze had 21 markers and 11 rebounds for Georgia.