Sense of urgency

Gilas Pilipinas flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia last week, brimming with confidence for its campaign in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup.

But Gilas got hit hard by a reality check two games into the prestigious continental basketball competition.

Gilas gave itself a fighting chance in the last four minutes of the tight fourth quarter only to come up short against the might of New Zealand, 86-94, to the dismay of a partisan Filipino crowd at the King Abdullah Sports City early Friday (Manila time).

What was once a promising bid to end a four-decade title drought slowly turned into a nightmare for head coach Tim Cone and Gilas.

“Well, we’re disappointed that we lost two in a row,” a dejected Cone said after another stinging loss in Group D following an opening day defeat to Chinese Taipei.

“We didn’t see that. I don’t think we all saw that coming.”

Naturalized player Justin Brownlee rallied Gilas back from 18 points down in the first half to just three with under four minutes left in the final period.

However, the Tall Blacks answered with five straight points and kept the Gilas scoreless for three minutes to notch their second straight win in as many outings.

Gilas went down to a 0-2 win-loss record despite the 37-point effort of Brownlee.

“Tough loss for us,” said Brownlee, who shot 12-of-19 from the field including seven three-pointers.

“You’ve got to give New Zealand a lot of credit. They came out in the first half playing extremely well and hit some threes on us. We fought back but they withstood our fight.”

Gilas outscored the Kiwis, 27-19, in the third quarter to enter the final canto just behind by six.

Brownlee led a furious fourth quarter rally, nailing a trey with 3:48 left to cap an 8-0 run that pushed Gilas within three, 82-85.

The Tall Blacks weathered the storm with a good defensive effort in the succeeding plays while hitting crucial baskets to keep Gilas at bay.

“We’re obviously struggling in the first half. We’re not playing well in the first half, but we’re coming back,” Cone said.

“And I thought we played a really good second half, but we just couldn’t get over the hump. Had a couple of turnovers down the stretch that prevented us from really making the game tight,” he added.

Gilas allowed the Kiwis to shoot 50 percent from the three-point area and convert 49 percent of their shots from the floor.

The Nationals did a better job controlling their fouls with just 15 compared to 26 against the Taiwanese and committed seven turnovers — nine errors less than in their last game — but still not enough to get over the hump.

New Zealand takes on also unbeaten Chinese Taipei, which routed Iraq, 87-60, despite Chen Ying-Chun going scoreless after dropping 34 against Gilas last Wednesday, in a virtual battle for an outright quarterfinal seat.

Dwight Ramos had 19 points while center June Mar Fajardo scored 11 in a lost cause for Gilas, which needs to win its final group stage match against Iraq today at 4 p.m. (Manila time) to advance into the knockout round.

“And so, we’re disappointed, but the tournament’s not over for us,” Cone said.

The Tall Blacks unleashed a barrage of threes in the first half, hitting 9-of-15 from beyond the arc to keep a safe distance.

Gilas trailed by as many as 18 points, 37-55, with 1:14 left in the second canto after Jack Andew knocked down a triple.

Jordan Ngatai shot a perfect 4-of-4 from the three-point area in the first 20 minutes of the game to lead the attack of the Kiwis.

Fajardo and Kevin Quiambao scored back-to-back baskets to cut down Gilas deficit to 41-55 heading into the halftime break.

Ngatai converted all of his five triples and finished with 22 points to lead New Zealand.

Taylor Britt had 19 points and seven assists, Flynn Cameron got 12 points and Mojave Jackson King added 11 points for the Kiwis, who replicated their win over Gilas last February in the third and final window of the Asia Cup qualifiers.