Gilas improving but its best not enough

MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas continued to show progress but still came up short and bowed to Iceland, 76-86, at the close of the Toyota Four Nations Cup at Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, Estonia Saturday night (early Sunday morning in Manila).

The Philippine training team dropped all of its three games in the Estonian pocket tourney following earlier defeats at the hands of The Netherlands, 62-89 and the home team, 80-90.

Coach Tab Baldwin and the Gilas pool fly out of Estonia at 3:25 p.m. Sunday and are expected to arrive in Manila at 6 p.m. today.

Next up for Gilas Pilipinas is the Jones Cup in Taipei from Aug. 29-Sept. 6 inside the final month of its buildup for the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha, China slated Sept. 23-Oct. 3.

Baldwin intends to shorten its rotation midway through the Jones Cup, a tough international invitational meet Gilas Pilipinas II ruled in 2012.

Against Iceland, Baldwin fielded in Andray Blatche, Terrence Romeo, Jayson Castro, Gary David, JC Intal, Dondon Hontiveros, Moala Tautuaa, Matt Rosser, Sonny Thoss, Gabe Norwood, Aldrech Ramos and Troy Rosario while sitting out Jimmy Alapag, Calvin Abueva, Asi Taulava and Ranidel de Ocampo.

In their strongest stand in the Estonian meet, the Filipinos fought the Icelanders in a nip-and-tuck battle through the first three quarters only to stagger in the final canto.

Blatche, the Filipino naturalized player who turned 29 in the day, churned out 22 points and five rebounds against the Iceland team set to make its first-ever stint in the FIBA EuroBasket starting Sept. 5.

Before this year’s EuroCup, Iceland was confined to playing in the Euro Championship for Small Countries, a FIBA Euro Division III event participated in at one time or another by Albania, Andorra, Austria, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Denmark, Gibraltar, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Norway, San Marino, Scotland and Wales.

But the Icelanders are obviously in better shape than the Filipinos, with the EuroBasket already about to start. The top two teams in the European league automatically make the 2016 Olympics compared to just one from the Asian meet.

Romeo continued to make good impression, top scoring among the locals with 17 points that went with four rebounds. The Globabalport hotshot, however, was limited to two points in the final half.

Castro contributed 11 points on 4-of-4 field goals, David chipped in six on 3-of-3 conversion while Tautuaa added five points and six rebounds.

The Filipinos held a seven-point lead in the third quarter before the Icelanders made a decisive move, pulling ahead at 59-56 going into the payoff period.

Iceland scored the first two baskets in the final quarter to completely seize control, building double-digit spreads later on before capping the win.