Despite losing to Cameroon, Brazil stayed on top

Brazil’s Leo Mendl will be the man to watch for Gilas Pilipinas
PHOTO: FIBA

BRAZIL still emerged the top team in its group despite a 77-74 loss to Cameroon, forging a semifinal duel with Gilas Pilipinas in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament early Friday at the Riga Arena in Latvia.

The Brazilians trailed by as many as 24 points in the second period, but made it a close game at the end by holding the opposition to just nine points in the final quarter.

A pair of free throws from Vitor Benite tied the game at 74, but Jeremiah Hill drained what would be the game-winner for Cameron as his three-pointer with 57 seconds put the Indomitable Lions up for good.

Following the loss, Brazil ended up tied with its tormentor along with Montenegro by the end of the group phase with similar 1-1 records.

But the Brazilians and the Indomitable Lions finished with a better point differential of +6 and -1 over Montenegro (-5) to emerge the top two teams in Group B and advance in the crossover semis.

Brazil and Gilas will duke it out on Saturday, 8:30 p.m. (Philippine time) for a seat in the finals, while the other semis pairing pits Group A top team Latvia against Cameroon at 12mn.

The host and Philippines also made it to the next round via a superior point differential against Georgia in their group.

“We need to forget this game [not] only mentally and but to prepare ourselves. But we need to get the message to the floor on what we need to do if we would like to beat the Philippines,” said coach Aleksandar Petrovic of Brazil, ranked no. 12th in the world.

Hill topscored for Cameroon with 22 points, six rebounds and six assists, while shooting 6-fo-13 from deep.

Brazil was led by the 19 of Leo Meindl.

The scores

Cameroon (77) – Hill 22, Bidias 15, Narace 9, Eboua 8, Gbetkom 7, R. Bidias 6, Ateba 3, Bayehe 3, Choh 2, Nyama 2.