GILAS Pilipinas eyes a Clark bubble treble and a perfect closing pool play slate as it plays bitter rival South Korea in a rematch Sunday, four nights after a thriller of a win in their previous tiff.
The Nationals' 81-78 triumph Wednesday was truly far from convincing, with the South Korean mentor branding it a product of a "lucky shot."
Alas, coach Cho Sang Hyun's remarks - given through an interpreter - touched raw nerves, making it another potential bullet that the home side may use in a bid to score a twin-kill against the visiting squad.
Game time of a possible dogfight of a rematch is at 6 p.m. with coach Tab Baldwin and his young guns determined to prove their Wednesday win wasn't a fluke.
"We've already read that the Korean coach felt that we were lucky to win the game," Baldwin said. "Frankly, I think that's pretty rich of any coach to walk off a game in which you lose and to claim that it was good luck on the part of your opponent."
Sponsored content:
"There is no space for taking a shot. It was a lucky shot. There was nothing we can do to fix it," said Cho of SJ Balangel's killer trey right before the buzzer.
Baldwin didn't hide displeasure over Cho's remarks.
And he's sure the players weren't ready to accept Cho's remarks either.
"We would make sure that that is highlighted and I'm sure that will give our players a little bit of an extra incentive. I don't expect that we will be going out there to make friends on Sunday," said Baldwin.
In the keenly-awaited rematch, the Nationals have a chance for golden sweeps of the Koreans, their three-game Clark bubble assignments and their six games in all in Pool A of the continental qualifiers.
Sponsored content:
Assured of a slot in the FIBA Asia Cup proper, the Nationals intend to still get going, learn and develop in a continuing buildup for the 2023 World Cup the country is co-hosting with Japan and Indonesia.
That was the same motivation against Indonesia Friday night, especially as the Gilas mentor found his team lax in the first half.
"We really lacked self-discipline and discipline of the culture we're trying very hard to establish," said Baldwin in his halftime talk to the players.
"And without that, we'll be pretty ordinary and we don't want to be ordinary, we want to be an elite team that deserves respect from the people. We discussed a few things and we came out of halftime with a different attitude," Baldwin said in the post-game presser.
The Nationals did assert themselves in the second half, and ran away with a 76-51 triumph to set them up for their battle with the Koreans Sunday. (SB)
