MANILA,
Philippines–After an overtime loss from Croatia, 78-81 , Gilas Pilipinas ran
the game with great hustle and determination before falling to powerhouse
Greece, 70-82, in Group B of the 2014 Fiba World Cup early morning of September
1 (Philippine time) in Seville, Spain.
Despite
the tension that the naturalized center Andray Blatche suffered from his right
knee injury, he still came away with 21 points and 14 rebounds in a losing
cause for the Philippines, which gave Croatia a scare in a 78-81 loss in
overtime on Saturday.
“We lost the game but we fought
really hard. We played better, we connected more, we had better body language,
higher confidence; and we played tougher on defense,” said Philippine national
team coach Michael Jarin.
“I’m very happy with my boys.
Some of the coaches whom I talked to after the game told me: ‘you lost the game
but you are winning the hearts of the world’.
“Everybody is enjoying watching
us. We are the underdogs but we will continue to fight. We thank the huge
support of our kababayans (countrymen) who watch our games in Dubai.
“We’re excited to play against
USA on Monday and we need to prepare because we are getting better. We played
big against Angola, bigger against Greece and we will play biggest against
USA,” added Jarin.
The
Philippine team will be preparing as it will face Derrick Rose’s team
(USA) on Monday.
