Gilas comes back from a 20-point deficit, overcomes Kai Sotto injury to stay on track for a spot in Paris Olympics

PHOTO: FIBA.BASKETBALL

GILAS Pilipinas lost to Georgia on Thursday but it was a defeat that it was more than willing to take.

The Philippines dropped a 96-94 loss to Georgia but did just enough to secure a semifinal berth in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia.

Gilas wiped out an early 20-point deficit and overcame an injury to Kai Sotto to keep Georgia from meeting the required winning margin of 19 points or more to advance.

Instead, it was the Philippines that progressed via the tiebreak, taking the second spot in Group A to keep its hopes alive of booking a seat in the Paris Olympics.

Gilas, Georgia and host Latvia, which the Filipinos stunned on Thursday, 89-80, finished the group stage with similar 1-1 (win-loss) records.

The Nationals will now face the No. 1 spot in Group B still to be determined later in the day after the result of the Brazil-Cameron game.

The game ended in a bizarre way with Goga Bitadze failing an attempt by Georgia to force overtime by scoring on his own basket after a missed free throw by Chris Newsome.

The follow-up try bounced off the rim to the disappointment of the Georgia bench.

Gilas coach Tim Cone admitted it was difficult to motivate the players to play full on less than 24 hours after their huge 89-80 win over Latvia.

“We knew that Georgia is going to come in with great energy that they have a level of desperation because they needed this game and they need a big margin to advance,” said Cone.

PHOTO BY: FIBA.BASKETBALL

“It was still pulling our teeth to get our guys ready. You can see it. Just a short turnaround and then you play your total heart out to beat a really superior team, and then to come in and have to play against a team that really needed it.

“It’s like a train coming at you and there’s nowhere for you. You couldn’t go left, couldn’t go right. You just have to take a hit. And that’s basically what we did. We took the hit early and tried to recover from that hit,” said Cone.

“We got our senses back as we went along,” Cone added.

Justin Brownlee helped Gilas erase the huge deficit and finished with 28 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists, while Dwight Ramos added 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists in another superb start.

CJ Perez came up big with 14 points including two three-pointers, all coming in the fourth quarter to prevent Georgia from pulling away.

Brownlee’s lay-up got Gilas within one point with 33.3 seconds left, but it became a mathematical game after that.

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Alexander Mamukelashvili, an NBA player from the San Antonio Spurs, had 26 points and was responsible for building Georgia’s big lead early in the contest.

Bitadze had 21 points and 11 rebounds for Georgia, which had to mount a big lead following their 83-55 defeat against Latvia two days ago.

The scores:

Georgia 96 – Mamukelashvili 26, Bitadze 21, Shengelia 17, Thomasson 14, Sanadze 13, Andronikashvili 5, Jintcharadze 0, Korsantia 0, Ochkhikidze 0, Londaridze 0.

Philippines 94 – Brownlee 28, Ramos 16, Perez 14, Newsome 13, Tamayo 7, Fajardo 6, Sotto 4, Oftana 4, Aguilar 2, Quiambao 0.

Quarters: 28-17; 55-43; 74-74; 96-94.