SEVILLE, Spain: Gilas Pilipinas believes that it gained something in taking a sorry loss to Croatia Saturday at the start of the 2014 Fiba World Cup.
The Filipinos fought the Croats tooth-and-nail and fell just short, bowing 78-81, in overtime but making everyone in the Group B field take a second look at them after taking the European power to the distance at the Centro Deportivo San Pablo here.
“One thing about it (even after losing) is that we are confident now,” said former Brooklyn Net Andray Blatche, who scattered 26 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in his first game as a naturalized Filipino.
“We now know that we belong and we can keep our heads up.”
The Filipinos had a chance to win it in regulation, but coach Chot Reyes believes that it shouldn’t have even come to that had a questionable call not come and gave the Croats a five-point swing in the waning seconds of the third period.
Just 49-52 down, a referee slapped Jason Castro with a technical foul for supposedly flopping on a driving Kiroslav Simon which resulted in two free throws plus possession for the Croats.
Simon calmly sank the freebies and Croatia opened up a 57-49 lead going into the fourth when Damir Barkota canned a triple that beat the buzzer.
“We had momentum on our side during that time,” Castro, obviously disappointed, told Arab News in Filipino. “There was really a foul because that forearm hit me so hard that I fell really hard on the floor.”
“The ref called a technical foul that I couldn’t believe (near the end of the third quarter), Reyes told reporters during the press conference. “He (ref) said Jason was flopping. The guy (Castro) is 5-10 and he is guarding a 6-5, how can that be flopping?
“That’s five points and that’s the difference in the game,” Reyes continued. “If not for that technical foul, we could have won the game. It wouldn’t have gone into overtime.”
Surely, it was a bitter pill to swallow for the Philippines, which needs at least two victories in this round to march on to the KO stages. The Filipinos also fell short in notching their first win in close to four decades in the tournament.
Bojan Bogdanovic, a former teammate of Blatche at Brooklyn, also shone with 26 points highlighted by some crucial free throws in the stretch.
Ante Tomic, Croatia’s 7-foot-1 center, collared 11 rebounds that went with eight points, with Simon shooting 12 and grabbing seven rebounds.
“We just kept on fighting. We knew Croatia was tough, but the players fought all the way,” Reyes said.
Jeff Chan missed a long two-pointer near the fourth quarter buzzer which could have won it all for the Philippines. The left-handed gunslinger finished with 17 points for Gilas built around four three-pointers.
Marc Pingris contributed 10 points for the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the Philippines resumes its search for the first of two wins it needs to advance when it plays Greece at 8 p.m. Sunday, before battling former world champion Argentina Monday.
“Right now, the other teams woke up and realized how good a team we are,” Blatche said with a lot of pride. “We will just keep on fighting and try to win some games.”
In a related development, Blatche said that he knows what is happening back in Manila, where officials of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas are scampering to have him approved to play in the Incheon Asian Games in South Korea next month.
But he also knows that it is out of his hands at the moment, and that he also doesn’t want to be bothered by it.
“It’s out of my hands now,” said Blatche.