The Philippines’ shock victory over New Zealand late on Thursday night not only ended a spell of defeats to the powerhouse Asia-Oceania squad, it gave the national program an opportunity to keep building toward the development of its younger players.
The 93-89 upset that thrilled a packed Mall of Asia Arena crowd gave Gilas Pilipinas a third straight win in as many games in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers and cleared the Filipinos’ path heading into a battle with listless Hong Kong again this coming Sunday.
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Up against a lower-ranked foe whose chance of advancing is close to nil, the Philippines can now shift to a low gear and allow players who barely saw action in the clash with the Tall Blacks to have their chance to shine.
That includes Ange Kouame, the other naturalized player who could be activated in the game that will be played again at the bayside arena in Pasay City.
“Ange is one of our naturalized players. But we can only play one naturalized player at a time, so that means the only person he could play in place of is Justin,” national coach Tim Cone said in a recent interview.
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Brownlee had 26 points and 11 rebounds in the win against New Zealand, while Kai Sotto added an all-around performance of 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists—leading a third-quarter charge that allowed the Filipinos to break out of a tied game and take a nine-point lead into the fourth.
One more win
But it was guard Chris Newsome who came up huge in the stretch, defusing a late run by the Kiwis with a dagger triple and then coming up with a crucial steal near the end.
The Philippines can qualify for the Asia Cup with one more win, and that could come against Hong Kong, where a stint by Kouame could allow the former Ateneo star to regain his confidence and rebuild cohesion with his teammates, whom he hasn’t played with in an official game since the golden romp in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.
“Ange is only going to enhance everything we do. He’s a hard worker, he brings it every day in practice,” Cone said. “He’s gonna make us all better. We’d love to have Ange as long as he wants.
“We need him there so he can be ready to step in immediately as necessary. Plus, he’s one of the few guys who can throw a body at June Mar [Fajardo] and get June Mar ready for playing against bigger players, which is very important for us.”
The Philippines whipped Hong Kong, 94-64, in a road game back in February.
Aside from Kouame, another player who could enjoy more exposure in the return match against the Chinese is Mason Amos, the young stretch big serving his redshirt year for La Salle.
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Amos was hardly utilized during the Olympic qualifiers in Riga, Latvia, and even Cone has spoken candidly about missing the chance to do so.
“We’re hoping to reap the benefits of that going into this next tournament, as opposed to having, you know, different players and having to reteach. Now it’s all about elevating—elevating the knowledge of the players,” Cone said.