Photo: FIBA

By Art Ramirez

Gilas Pilipinas will try to make it two in a row against Guam in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers at the Blue Eagle Gym.

The Philippines beat Guam on the road, 87-46, on Friday to start the World Cup qualifiers on a winning track. Gilas Pilipinas now shifts at home where head coach Tim Cone hopes that their quality of play will continue in front of their fans.

“That’s the big thing about home and away. You’ve got to follow it up,” Cone said. 

“(Guam will be) going to come incredibly motivated. But hopefully, we have the home crowd that will get us pumped up. We love our basketball back home. Everybody knows and we’re going to have a big sellout whenever Gilas players. We don’t play at home very often so when we do, everybody is excited to watch.”

Before returning home for the game, Gilas Pilipinas had a chance to do some rest and recreation by going to the beach in Guam, but that doesn’t mean that the team is on relax mode.

Cone said they need to continue to be intense on the defensive end especially in guarding Jericho Cruz and Tai Wesley.

Cruz had 17 points but only two in the second half, while Wesley had 12 points on 4 of 13 shooting, mostly inside the paint.

“I thought we were letting Wesley get the ball exactly where he wanted all the time and he was able to control the tempo. They were able to slow it down and continue and they’re very, very disciplined. And we saw that when they played Syria and the Asia Cup. We saw that when they played Japan. They played really, really well in the first half and they controlled it by throwing the ball down the post, letting Wesley do his thing. We were prepared for it, but he was still doing the thing that he wanted to do,” said Cone.

Justin Brownlee had 22 points, Dwight Ramos had 10 points, and Quentin Millora-Brown had six points, 10 rebounds, and three blocks in the Gilas win over Guam.