Gilas, Boomers go to war

Game today:

(King Abdullah Sports City)

7 p.m. -- Philippines vs Australia

It’s inevitable.

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone surrenders to the fact that the Philippines will cross paths with mighty Australia along the way in its bid to capture the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup title in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

It will come early in the playoffs, though, with the Filipinos heading into a collision course with the three-peat-seeking Aussies today in the knockout quarterfinal at the King Abdullah Sports City.

“We know that they are pretty much the No. 1 seed in the tournament, and for us to beat them is going to be an upset,” Cone said as Gilas gears up for another brutal battle at 7 p.m. (Manila time).

While the world No. 7-ranked Australia cruised to an outright Last Eight seat, Gilas had to go through the backdoor.

Naturalized player Justin Brownlee’s late three-pointer in regulation forced an overtime before young guns Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu took over in the extension to boot out host Saudi Arabia, 95-88, in the quarters qualification match early Tuesday (Manila time).

Cone could only hope that the momentum Gilas built after beating Iraq at the end of the group stage and outlasting the Saudis would be enough to score what could be the tournament’s biggest upset.

“But, you know, winning this game tonight, beating Iraq, coming in, winning this game the way we did tonight has supplied us with some momentum,” Cone said.

“So, hopefully, we can carry that against Australia.”

But beating the Aussies is easier said than done.

In the last five meetings between the two teams, Gilas won only once. And it was back in the classification round of the 1978 World Championship in Puerto Rico when the Filipinos escaped with a 101-100 squeaker behind Bogs Adornado’s 20-point outing.

The Australians last bested Gilas in a FIBA World Cup qualifying game on 2 July 2018 at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan marred by a controversial free-for-all melee.

Australia has yet to drop a game after sweeping Group A with blowouts over South Korea, Lebanon and Qatar.