SEMIS BOUND. Gilas Pilipinas players wave to the crowd after losing to Georgia, 94-96, but still making the semifinals of the Olympic Qualifying tournament in Riga, Latvia on Thursday night (July 4, 2024; PH time). The Philippines advanced via superior quotient and will join the host in the crossover Final Four on Saturday (July 6). (Photo courtesy of FIBA)
MANILA – Georgia didn’t achieve the winning margin it needed, beating Gilas Pilipinas 96-94, instead of by at least 19 points, to exit the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and send the Filipinos to the Final Four at Riga Arena in Latvia Thursday night (PH time).
Georgia raced to a 16-0 lead and started the second quarter with a 12-3 run for a 40-20 gap.
An 11-0 Gilas run cut Georgia’s lead to 40-31 before the latter settled for a 55-43 edge at halftime.
Midway through the third quarter, Gilas unloaded a 16-3 blast for its first taste of the lead, 71-70, with 1:48 left.
Georgia scored back-to-back baskets to take back the upper hand -- short-lived as Justin Brownlee scored a three that forced a 74-all tie.
Calvin Oftana had a chance to give Gilas the lead back, but his buzzer-beater was not released on time.
Georgia had its last chance to pull away when it took an 88-81 lead with 4:52 to go, until CJ Perez helped Gilas cut the lead down to 92-91, even as both sides settled for an exchange of baskets until the end.
Gilas will face either Brazil or Montenegro in Saturday’s semifinals.
“We had our tickets to leave tomorrow (Friday). I guess we're gonna have to move it back a little bit,” Gilas coach Tim Cone told fiba.com. “That's how surprised we are. It's the first time I feel good about losing. It could have been an easy panic time when we were down 20, but they really showed their resilience.”
READ: Gilas faces Brazil in FIBA OQT semis set
Brownlee led the Philippines with 28 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and one steal.
Dwight Ramos added 16 points, CJ Perez 14 points and Chris Newsome 13.
"We feel great. We battled hard. The guys fought being down 17, 18 points. We still didn't lose our confidence. We're excited to be here for sure. Overall, I'm just excited to be in the semifinals," Brownlee said.
Sandro Mamukelashvili had 26 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and one block led Georgia, whose 83-55 loss to the host turned out to be the fatal blow to its semifinal bid.
Goga Bitadze added 21 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
"Guys fought hard, we got ourselves in this situation. They came ready to play, a great game. We really fought hard, but it wasn't enough. We move on. This a 40-minute game, you can't have ups and downs," Bitadze said.
Gilas opened its bid with a huge upset against world No. 6 Latvia, 89-80, early Thursday (PH time). It was the Philippines' first win against a European team in 64 years.
According to the FIBA website, the last time the Philippines won against a team from Europe was during the 1960 Rome Olympics against Spain, 84-82.
Olympic stints
Basketball made its debut as a medal sport in the Olympics in 1936 Berlin, with Charlie Borck and team captain Ambrosio Padilla leading the Philippines to a fifth-place finish out of 21 nations.
To date, it is the best finish by an Asian team in the quadrennial Summer Games.
The Filipino cagers last made the Olympics in 1972 Munich, which was marred by the terrorist attack of Palestinian militants Black September.
Eleven Israeli athletes and coaches were killed at the Athletes’ Village, along with one local cop and five of the reported eight terrorists. (PNA)
