Gilas falls short in first FIBA World Cup tuneup game against Jordan

Gilas Pilipinas faced visiting team Jordan for a tune-up game (Photo: Chooks-to-go Pilipinas/Facebook)

In preparation for the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, Gilas Pilipinas faced visiting team Jordan for a tune-up game at the Meralco Gym, Pasig last Monday, November 19, of which they fell short losing at 98-92.

Christian Standhardinger led Team Philippines with 21 points, followed by teammates Marcio Lassiter and Jayson Castro who contributed 14 and 13 respectively. Ginebra’s LA Tenorio, Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar, and Scottie Thompson were all present for the game but watched from the bench as they only participated in one practice so far. For the opposing team, Zaid Abbas marked 24 points, which featured a three-pointer at the last 51 seconds that won Team Jordan the game. Abbas was guided by teammates Mousa Al Awadi and Abu Hawwas Amin who delivered 18 and 16 points respectively.

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Yeng Guiao believes that his team is “a little bit rusty” and that “there’s a lot of room for improvement.” He stated, “We had some good stretches, but we also had some bad stretches. Our execution is still not that good, so we have to fine-tune our execution on both ends,” adding that they need to improve for Wednesday, which is their next match against the same team at the same venue. Coach Yeng concluded, “These games are learning experiences for us. What we want to do or what we want to achieve is to be able to see where our shortcomings are, where our weaknesses are.”

For their second tune-up game, the Filipino squad will face Lebanon on Friday, November 23. This is all in preparation for when Team Philippines will face Kazakhstan and Iran for the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers. It will start at the Mall of Asia Arena on November 30.