Finns hand Gilas another defeat

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas sustained a narrow 85-89 defeat to Finland Wednesday night as it capped its training camp in Estonia without a win but with a better understanding of how much work is needed.

As in their 71-81 loss to the Estonians the night before, the Nationals found themselves in an 11-29 hole early on and furiously clawed back up but fell short in the end.

“It’s obvious that we’re still very far from being in any kind of competitive game shape,” said coach Chot Reyes.

“(But) we’re not supposed to be in game shape yet at this point because we have to make sure that we peak at the right time. We don’t want to peak too early and burn out in the end. So that’s all part of the process and I’m very happy, I’m very satisfied with the effort.”

Reyes took note of the improved performance against No. 24 Finland coming off the camp-opening match against the Estonians Tuesday.

“Definite metrics as targets for this game, No. 1 was to cut down our turnovers. We had 23 yesterday and today, we were able to cut that down by eight,” he said.

“We finished with 15 assists on 15 turnovers. So, at least, we were able to up our assist-turnover ratio to 1:1 as against yesterday when it was a negative (12 assists versus 23 errors).  That’s a good sign that we played better today.”

The Finland game illustrated Gilas’ rebounding deficiency. The Filipinos lost the battle of the boards by 18 and gave up 29 offensive boards while hauling down a meager five.