RANGED against experienced 3x3 teams, Gilas Pilipinas struggled to find rhythm and suffered stinging losses in its first two games in the FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournament in Graz, Austria Wednesday night.
The Gilas side tumbled against Qatar, 12-21, then bowed to Slovenia, 11-21, to essentially kiss their Olympic hopes goodbye just on Day One of the five-day meet among 20 nations fighting for only three berths to the Tokyo Games in July.
Joshua Munzon, CJ Perez, Moala Tautuaa and Leonard Santillan go for some measure of respect as they play France and Dominican Republic Friday.
In both games against the Qataris and the Slovenians, the Nationals came out flat and hardly got going, thus, suffering nasty losses.
Gilas fell in a deep hole, 0-7, early against the Qataris, and trailed by as many as 12 at 3-15 against the Slovenians, with the Nationals struggling both offensively and defensively.
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Abdulrahman Saad fired four deuces and finished with 10 points while Nedim Muslic drained two deuces and ended up with nine for the Qataris.
Perez and Munzon scored five points each while Santillan and Tautuaa contributed one apiece.
Then the Filipinos faced the same problem in their next game, unable to stop the Slovenians' pick-and-rolls, give-and-go plays and kick-outs.
Simon Finzgar scored nine points while Gasper Ovnik and Anze Srebovt added six apiece for the Slovenians while Munzon topscored for Gilas with seven mostly on one-on-one plays. (SB)
