New Zealand’s rugged defense on Justin Brownlee served as the key to its 69-66 win over Gilas Pilipinas in the second window of the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers late Thursday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Tall Blacks head coach Judd Flavell said their defensive game plan that was focused on Brownlee and Dwight Ramos reaped a handsome reward, allowing them to deal the Filipinos’ first setback in this prestigious continental qualifier.

Although Ramos finished with 16 points, the veteran naturalized player bled offensively, tallying only four points on a sluggish 2-of-10 field goal shooting, including a 0-of-4 clip from the three-point territory. He scored his first basket with nine minutes left in the third quarter and made his second and last basket of the game in the final period.

“He’s about 80 percent of our game plan,” said Flavell, paying great respect to Brownlee’s ability to score.

“Whenever he’s on the floor, we know the ball is coming back to Brownlee.”

“He takes a lot of attention. He can score the basketball and he’s a true international scorer. So we just have to be in touch with him all the time. He’s involved in the actions so we want to make sure there’s always two guys on him and he gets to see a lot of bodies.”

Flavell reiterated that they are aware of Brownlee’s offensive capability so limiting his touches was really the key to their crucial victory.

“We know the damage that he can do. He’s given us the business before in recent games. So he was a large focal point for us. And I thought that went a long way for us defensively tonight,” he added.

“We know that these two pieces are two big pieces for them offensively. And I was really happy for the team with the job that we did on the defensive end.”

With Brownlee struggling, CJ Perez and Juan Gomez de Liaño stepped up, finishing with 15 and 10 points, respectively, for the home squad which found no answer to the Kiwis’ suffocating interior defense.

Gilas head coach Tim Cone respected the Tall Blacks’ defense, saying that they will carry the lessons they learned when they face Oceania powerhouse Australia on Sunday at the same Pasay City venue.

“(New Zealand) did a really good job of doubling Justin, denying him touches. People are going to point at the game and say he only had four points but that was strictly through the game planning of New Zealand,” Cone said.

“We needed other guys to step up. CJ did and Dwight did. But when it came down to big plays, making a big shot, we weren’t able to do that at crucial times.”

Even Ramos said they need to learn from the loss and brace for yet another grueling battle against the taller, scrappier, more aggressive Boomers.

“We got to learn from this and look forward to our game against Australia,” said Ramos, vowing to do a better job when they face the Tall Blacks in Auckland on 3 July before going to Melbourne to battle the Boomers on 6 July.