GILAS Pilipinas battles New Zealand in a rematch where the top seed in Group B of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers will be at stake.
The Filipinos and Tall Blacks duke it out at 10 a.m. (Manila time) Sunday at the Spark Arena in Auckland.
The home team is looking to even things out with the visitors, who clipped the Tall Blacks, 93-89, in their first meeting last November at the Mall of Asia Arena. It marked the first time the Philippines beat New Zealand in a FIBA sanctioned-tournament.
But Gilas Pilipinas will be coming to the match fresh from a three-game losing streak, including a 91-84 defeat against Chinese Taipei in the penultimate game of the qualifiers' final window last Friday.
Coach Tim Cone admitted it's going to be a tough task beating the Tall Blacks at home and the team reeling from three straight losses dating back to its campaign in a friendly meet in Doha, Qatar last week.
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"Right now, that doesn't make us feel any better. It doesn't make the players feel better," said Cone as the Filipinos departed for Auckland from Chinese Taipei.
"Right now, we don't feel good about ourselves. We feel like we failed the country and we have to find a way to lift our spirits up and get ready to move on into New Zealand."
In contrast, the Tall Blacks will be going to their return bout with the Filipinos in high spirits following their 91-52 demolition of Hong Kong also on Friday.
The New Zealand win coupled by the loss of Gilas created a two-way tie at the top of Group B between the two countries at 4-1, making the winner of the qualifiers' final game earning the no. 1 seed in the bracket heading to the FIBA Asia Cup tournament in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this August.
The task is not lost on Tall Blacks coach Judd Flavell.
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"We're already qualified for Asia Cup, but we're aiming to get the top seed so that we can place ourselves or position ourselves with the best chance to get ourselves to the gold-medal match," he said. "So what that requires is us beating the Philippines here (in New Zealand)."
Both the Philippines and New Zealand have already clinched berths in the tournament proper as the top two teams in their group.(RG)
