Gilas looks to apply learnings from New Zealand loss in clash vs Australia

Dwight Ramos (24)

(STAR / Russell Palma)

MANILA, Philippines — As Nelson Mandela said, you either win or learn.

After Gilas Pilipinas’ tough loss against New Zealand in their FIBA Asia World Cup Qualifiers game last Thursday, guard Dwight Ramos said the team will try to bring their learnings to the mammoth matchup with Australia on Sunday.

The Philippines absorbed a cardiac 69-66 defeat at the hands of the Tall Blacks on Thursday. The loss came despite naturalized player Justin Brownlee being limited to four points, and Ramos having a tough shooting night.

Ramos, in an interview with reporters after the game, said he aims to be better moving forward, with the road just getting tougher from here.

“I just try to stay aggressive because, you know, obviously a lot of the focus is on JB. If you just watch him and expect him to do everything, it's a lot of load on him. So, everyone's got to be aggressive and play their part and I just try to do mine,” he said.

“But, you know, I wasn't the best today and I just try to be better moving forward,” he added.

Against New Zealand, Ramos finished with a game-high 16 points to go with eight rebounds. But he shot 6-of-21 from the floor. He also hoisted up a late, deep 3-pointer to try to tie things up, but his attempt rattled out.

“We're going to try to learn from this game. It's a close game, so obviously there's a lot to learn because every possession counts,” he said.

“We're going to check over the mistakes and learn from it.”

This was echoed by CJ Perez.

“Kailangang mag-move on sa next game against Australia. Ayun, nakakalungkot na hindi manalo, pero may chance kaming bumawi,” the guard, who finished with 15 points in the game, underscored.

Gilas head coach Tim Cone, for his part, said that they could not take any moral victories as they were not able to do what they needed to do.

“I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I'm happy about our performance. The bottom line is we're not going to feel good or take pride in the fact that we got close, or we almost won, or whatever. Bottom line, we're here to win, we didn't do that,” he stressed.

“We're not going to take any pride in almost winning, or making the game close, or whatever, you know, we showed up to win, and we didn't do that tonight.”

The crucial matchup with Australia will be on Sunday, 7:30 p.m., at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.