Gilas Pilipinas treads a rocky road to 2027 FIBA World Cup

FAILURE to steal a winnable Qualifiers game in Oceania has made the road to the 2027 FIBA World Cup a lot more rocky for Gilas Pilipinas.

After yielding a fighting 102-106 loss to New Zealand in Auckland and absorbing a 49-92 blowout from Australia in Perth in the last window of Round 1, the Filipinos find themselves in catchup mode in the second round.

With their carry-over card of eight points on two wins and four losses, the Filipinos will go into Round 2 sitting at fifth spot as the three qualifiers from Group A merge with their three counterparts from Group C to form Group E.

The powerhouse Boomers (12 points on a perfect 6-0) sit atop the six-team bracket followed by Iran (11 points on 5-1), Jordan (11 points on 5-1), New Zealand (10 points on 4-2) and the Philippines. Syria holds the No. 6 seed with eight markers on 2-4.

Per World Cup Qualifiers format, a team will play home-and-away against the three coming from the other group. At the end of three windows, the Top 3 sides along with the best fourth-placed team will earn tickets to the global showpiece to be hosted by Qatar.

With new opponents Iran and Jordan already bringing 11 points into the second round, Gilas is hard-pressed to rack up victories (worth two points each) in the six coming matches to jack up its position in the race.

Coach Tim Cone himself, prior to Window 3, had previously estimated it would take “almost a sweep” to hurdle the next round should they fall short in their Oceania mission.

They did, and now it’s time to move on and attend to the next order of business.

“We have to learn from this. Like coach said, there are going to be a lot of teams just as good as Australia (moving forward),” said Gilas star Dwight Ramos after the 43-point beating from the Boomers without injured gunner Justin Brownlee.

“We’ve got to keep working, remember this game, remember the feeling of getting embarrassed like this, work hard, and come back,” he added.

Second-round hostilities will blast off on Aug. 28 and 30 in a pair of triple-headers. The SM MOA Arena is reportedly being eyed as the venue, giving Gilas the extra boost of having its “sixth man” as it takes on Jordan and then Iran, if ever.

The side is also keeping its fingers crossed that Mr. Brownlee would be good to go by then after being sidelined by hamstring strain and peroneal tendinopathy on his right leg and left knee swelling and cartilage defects. — Olmin Leyba