QUEZON CITY (Philippines) - The Philippines kept their mastery of Guam with a 95-71 rout to finish Window 1 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers unscathed, Monday night at the Blue Eagle Gym.
The crew raced to a 17-3 start into the match before pulling away for good in the second half toward clinching their second win in as many games, in the process joining Australia atop Group B as both teams tote 2-0 records.
Key players
All but one scored at least two in the wire-to-wire triumph, with Justin Brownlee showing the way once more with 20 points alongside 5 rebounds and 7 assists, adding 2 steals and 1 block as well for a full line.
Dwight Ramos delivered 19 points and 7 rebounds. Kevin Quiambao submitted a 12-4-5 stat line with a steal and a block, while Chris Newsome chipped in 10 points as the tandem bannered the bench support.
Turning point
It wasn't entirely smooth-sailing for the home team, though, as the visiting side competed in the third quarter behind Jericho Cruz's stewardship and managed to chop the gap to single digits a few times.
But Brownlee would hit one of his two threes of the game, before Newsome came in to help as the duo strung together a mini 7-1 rally to give themselves a 72-55 advantage at the end of the said chapter.
Ramos and Quiambao would then go on to banner the strong finish, coming through in the closing minutes to ensure the 24-point win for a solid follow-up to their 87-46 victory on the road two nights ago.
Stats don't lie
Ball movement proved to be the difference yet again as Gilas dished out a total of 26 assists - four more than their output the last time out - and that led to an efficient 50.8-percent shooting from the floor.
Bottomline
Such a solid outing from the Philippines was predicated on their desire to give Japeth Aguilar a winning exit. The long-time men's team member played his final game for Gilas, ending a FIBA career that spanned 82 games.
Now, as they move ahead into a future without the veteran internationalist, Gilas will brace for tougher tests ahead as early as Window 2 in February, where they will be taking on New Zealand and the Boomers at home.
They said
"It's a long ways away, still. But we have our eyes on it. We know New Zealand pretty well, we played them a number of times; we played Australia in the Asia Cup. We know what's ahead of us. We know it's not gonna be easy. But we're hoping that playing at home will make a difference for us." - Tim Cone, Head Coach, Philippines
"I thought we started off really well but after we had a big lead, we kinda relaxed a little bit. Guam took advantage of that, Jericho [Cruz] and [Takumi] Simon were doing their thing. But we're still able to get the job done." - Dwight Ramos, Guard, Philippines
"Before we move on, we'll look very closely at what we can improve on from these two games and learn from. We're excited about the future, even though sometimes, you learn from a disappointing situation. We're very grateful for the opportunity we had this week to play a very good team and we're definitely gonna come back stronger next time." - EJ Calvo, Head Coach, Guam
"For us, it was like a test of where we are, playing against a team like Gilas. They're playing as a complete team while us, we don't have the same group as Gilas. But we did our best. We tried our best. Hopefully in the next windows, we'll do good." - Jericho Cruz, Guard, Guam
FIBA