Injured naturalized player Justin Brownlee missed the entire fourth window.

Then came Carl Tamayo’s Grade 2 ankle sprain.

Gilas Pilipinas went down by 18 against Jordan. Trailed by double digits again at the hands of Iran.

Coming into the second round of the 2027 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, the Philippines has lost four straight games, including two at home earlier this year.

Tremendous odds were stacked against an all-Filipino Gilas crew already hanging by the tip of its fingernails in the bid for a fourth straight World Cup appearance.

But somehow Gilas found a way to crawl out of the deep hole.

It’s not just luck that gave Gilas a lifeline to the gate of the flight set for the main draw in Doha, Qatar next year.

It’s the resilience of a team that time and time again has learned to rise above adversity.

Even the usually talkative head coach Tim Cone couldn’t find the exact words to describe how Gilas pulled off a victorious run against a couple of Middle Eastern giants that almost surely expected to run over a host squad marching into battle without its main weapon.

“Wow, I’m almost lost for words. You know that’s really unusual for me. I’m not usually at a loss for words, but I’m extremely happy,” said Cone following a 68-56 shocker over the Iranians to cap a two-game home stand sweep on Sunday night at the Mall of Asia Arena.

A week before the start of the most important round of the Asian Qualifiers, Cone announced that Brownlee, the team’s leading scorer, was “not healthy enough to contribute” in Gilas’ first stop of its back-against-the-wall campaign.

It dampened the earlier surprise return of 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto from a two-year national duty absence due to a spate of injuries, including a torn anterior cruciate ligament he sustained in January last year while playing in the Japan B.League.

Sotto proved to be the game-changer and reintroduced himself with a game-winning block on Abdullah Olajuwon’s point-blank shot as time wound down, preserving Gilas’ thrilling 82-81 come-from-behind overtime victory last Friday.

It was a win with a steep price to pay as Tamayo twisted his ankle in the opening minutes of the third quarter, which ended his game and eventually his fourth window tour of duty.

Two nights later, the 24-year-old big man teamed up with other young guns Juan Gomez de Liano, Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu in the closing 14-2 run as the Philippines improved to an even 4-4 win-loss record in Group E and moved within striking distance of the top four.

“Kai just asked me walking in, ‘Are you now the happiest guy in the world?’ And as I said earlier, if we can win these two games, I’ll be the happiest guy in the world,” Cone said.

“So right now, I’m the happiest guy in the world. Because these are two really, really high-level international teams. Iran especially, I understand; I read something in FIBA yesterday that this is only the third win we’ve had against them in the last 13 games,” he added.

“So, you know, and then we were able to do it all-Filipino. So, it just, you know, it makes it really sweet to come out and win this game.”

Knowing the gravity of its situation after a bad outing in the last two windows, Gilas fought with a sense of urgency in front of its hopeful but nervous home crowd.

But the Filipinos struggled in the first quarter of both games.

Gilas was buried by hot-shooting Jordanians, 8-26, and was limited by Iran to just seven points in the opening period.

Both times Gilas rallied for climactic finishes that will be remembered for a long while.

“It was one of those slow starts we had, but the guys just kept fighting and fighting and getting back into the game. And we came into halftime, we felt pretty good about ourselves, I think, and we felt we could pull this out,” Cone said.

“But just a great character performance by these guys in both games. And to have that overtime game, you know, be so easy to kind of let down coming into this one. But, you know, they all knew the importance of it,” he added.

“They all knew the importance it was for them. And for the country. They came out and played and it was it was fun to be a part of it. Really a lot of fun to be a part of it.”

Gilas’ home leg also served as a fitting farewell to big man June Mar Fajardo after a 13-year stint wearing the tricolor.

It was a sweet ending for the center by beating the same team that defeated Gilas in his national squad debut during the gold medal match of the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship at the same Pasay venue.

Gilas is celebrating its victory for now, but the job is not yet done.

The Philippines still has to win four more games to secure that World Cup slot.

And it starts with Syria in the fifth window on 27 November followed by a rematch with Iran three days later.

“The job is not done. We still got work to do but again this is a nice step forward,” Cone said.