Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
Two games in and Gilas Pilipinas still could not give the home fans a much-deserved victory in the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
The Philippines opened its campaign with an 81-87 defeat to Dominican Republic on Friday, August 25 before a record gate attendance of 38,115 fans at the Philippine Arena.
Gilas then dropped another one against Angola on Sunday, August 27 in front of 12,784 fans at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Back-to-back frustrating losses isn’t going to dampen Jordan Clarkson’s resolve, with the Utah Jazz star saying that he and his teammates are determined to win for the Filipino fans.
“We just gonna keep fighting. They’re here to support us every night, every day so we gonna keep fighting for y’all and we gonna keep playing and compete,” said Clarkson after Gilas’ loss to Angola.
“We’ll try to get it together and we’ll try to get wins for y’all,” added Clarkson, who fired 21 points on 7-of-22 field goal shooting.
Clarkson, who made up for his inefficient shooting with seven assists and three rebounds, admitted that losing to Angola after leading the African country, 28-17, was a tough pill to swallow.
But they can’t dwell on it.
“It’s tough but we gotta get over it. We got games to play. That’s all we can do. ”
Clarkson said Gilas needs to make adjustments as they are in a must-win situation when they face Italy on Tuesday, August 29.
A loss to to the powerhouse Italian (1-1) squad will end the Gilas’ hopes of advancing to the second round.
“[We need] to execute. I’m not sure, I haven’t seen the stat sheet. Whatever we do, we need to figure it out, make adjustments, and come out here and compete.”
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Credit belongs to : www.manilatimes.net
