Road to glory gets tougher for Filipinos

Gilas Pilipinas is facing an uphill climb following its heartbreaking 84-96 loss to New Zealand in the preliminaries of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup late Thursday at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.

The setback was the Filipinos’ second straight loss, pushing them to a must-win situation against dangerous Iraq in the last day of pool play on Saturday.

Should the Filipinos suffer their third straight loss in Pool D, they will formally kiss their title hopes goodbye and be relegated to the classification phase.

But should luck bounces off their way and pull off a morale-boosting victory over the Iraqis, the Filipinos will secure a playoff spot and will face the second seed in Pool C, which could either be Jordan or host Saudi Arabia. At press time, both the Jordanians and the Saudis are fashioning a 1-1 win-loss slate behind leader China, which won its first two matches.

Although Gilas beat Jordan in a friendly duel ahead of this prestigious continental showpiece, it still remains dangerous with Fadi Ibrahim, Amin Abu Hawwas, and naturalized player Dar Tucker leading the way.

On the same note, the Saudis should also not be taken lightly as they shocked the Jordanians, 77-73, behind the 22-point explosion of playmaker Marzouq Al-Muwallad.

A victory in the playoffs, however, will give the Filipinos a spot in the Last Eight where they will battle the topnotcher in Pool A, which could either be reigning champion Australia or Lebanon who are on top with identical 1-0 cards.

Gilas coach Tim Cone rues the situation they are in, but vowed that they will go hard against the Iraqis to salvage their hopes of snapping their 40-year title drought.

“Disappointed that we lost two in a row,” the prized American tactican said.

“We didn’t see that. I don’t think we all saw that coming. We’re disappointed, but the tournament’s not over for us. We have a big game against Iraq coming up and see if we can get into the next round.”