Desert storm survivors

Down three in the waning seconds of a crucial game against a host team backed by a loud and intimidating home crowd, other teams would have crumbled under intense pressure.

But not Gilas Pilipinas — definitely, not Justin Brownlee.

National team head coach Tim Cone wished Gilas wouldn’t need to channel its signature “never-say-die spirit” in facing a surprisingly good Saudi Arabia squad in an all-important battle for a quarterfinal ticket.

The Nationals did, however. And Cone is not complaining.

Brownlee rescued Gilas Pilipinas from the jaws of defeat in regulation before the young guns provided the finishing touches to engineer an epic 95-88 overtime escape over the Saudis to advance to the next round of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup early Tuesday (Manila) at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.

“By all rights, they had the game won. Except for the guy sitting to my right. Hits the big shot,” a relieved Cone said of the prized naturalized player.

Trailing by three points in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter, 76-79, Brownlee drained a cold-blooded well-challenged three-pointer off a timeout with 3.7 seconds left before Gilas made a good stop to send the qualifying match into an extension.

Kevin Quiambao, who was scoreless in the second half, hit two huge treys in overtime while AJ Edu and Dwight Ramos also contributed key baskets in the extra quarter to send the down to 10-man Gilas into the quarterfinal against three-peat-seeking Australia.

“It’s a familiar play we’ve been drawing up. I just tried to be aggressive on it and see whatever open opportunity I can. Got to give a lot of credit to Saudi, they came out and played great defense. But, somehow, I just shot it and it went in,” Brownlee said after dropping 29 points on 11-of-16 field goal shooting with five assists and four rebounds.

“But this win is a great team win. A lot of guys contributed to this win. And I’m just happy for the whole team. I’m happy that we can advance,” Brownlee added.

Quiambao added 17 markers, six in overtime, Edu had a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds with four assists while Ramos had 13 markers and 10 boards for the Philippines, who sat out Calvin Oftana (sprained ankle) and lost CJ Perez after tweaking his ankle in the first half.

Gilas will face the Australians tonight (Manila time) for the first time since trading shoves, punches, kicks — and even a flying chair — in a controversial free-for-all melee that erupted in a FIBA World Cup qualifying game on 2 July 2018 at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.

The Filipinos refused to roll down and die after a defensive collapse that allowed Mohammed Alsuwailem to score on a putback off a missed three by Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman with 14 ticks left in regulation.

Cone called for a break and drew up an all-too-familiar play for his reliable Barangay Ginebra import, who delivered the goods at the most crucial time.

“It’s exactly the same play we ran a few years ago to win a championship on the club level. So, he was familiar with it and that kind of spearheaded us forward once we got to the overtime. The momentum on that shot, you know, the emotion from that shot propelled us through the overtime,” Cone said.

Taking advantage of the momentum and the energy of the Filipino crowd, Quiambao, Ramos and Brownlee blasted an 11-2 run to give Gilas 90-81 advantage with 2:10 left in overtime.

A trey by Edu kept the Saudis at bay, 93-84, with under a minute left for the escape.

“But, you know, just really proud of our guys. Yeah, we didn’t quit. You know, we had some leads that we gave up, but they didn’t quit either,” the decorated mentor added.

“So again, that’s why it was an epic game. Both teams battled to the very end. It was an amazing game.”

Gilas played its best first quarter in the tournament as Quiambao found his mark early and the Nationals’ defensive schemes held tight to build a 10-point advantage, 25-15.

It didn’t last long, though, after Fahad Belal nailed a three-pointer to open the second period, followed by back-to-back treys and a layup from Abdur-Rahkman in the Saudis’ 14-1 barrage to take a 29-26 lead with 6:18 left in the first half.

Brownlee broke Gilas’ almost five-minute dry spell with a triple for the team’s first field goal of the second period. The two teams traded baskets heading into the closing stretch of the opening half before Scottie Thompson scored on a layup to give Gilas a 40-37 lead at the half.

The Philippines lost CJ Perez to a right ankle sprain with under six minutes left in the second quarter.

Perez was wheeled off the court during the break and sat out the rest of the game. He was the second Gilas player in sickbay after Calvin Oftana went down with an ankle sprain in the previous group stage match against Iraq last Saturday.

Saudi Arabia landed six of its seven first half three-pointers in the second period.

Abdur-Rahkman led the Saudis with 33 points including an 8-of-14 shooting clip from the outside. Alsuwailem got a double-double of 26 markers and 14 rebounds while Marzouq Almuwallad scored 10 markers for the home team.