Gilas Pilipinas falls to Serbia in close loss

Gilas Pilipinas lost to Serbia, 83-76, in its opening match at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgrade on Wednesday night (Thursday in the Philippines).

The national men’s basketball team gave the host team all it could handle but Serbia managed to escape an upset and secured a close victory.

Trailing by 16 points, Gilas Pilipinas had a strong third-quarter showing to come to within 67-62. In the fourth, the Philippines tied the count at 67-all inside the opening minute.

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Gilas took the lead for the first time at 74-73 on a triple by Jordan Heading and a layup by Rhon Jay Abarrientos with over four minutes left.

But the Serbians quickly responded, closing the game on a decisive 10-2 run to advance to the semifinals of the qualifiers. Dallas Maverick’s 7’4” center Boban Marjanović scored the next eight points for Serbia to hand his team an 81-76 advantage with 35 seconds remaining.

Marjanović finished with a double-double of 25 points and 11 rebounds. Ognjen Doboric added 16 markers while Milos Teodosic chipped in 13 points for Serbia.

Naturalized player Angelo Koaume led the Philippines with 17 points and seven rebounds while Jordan Heading recorded 13 points.

Kai Sotto contributed 10 points and five rebounds.

Next up for Gilas Pilipinas is Dominican Republic early on Friday morning (2:30 a.m.) for a spot in the next round of the tournament.

Watch the full game highlights between Philippines and Serbia.

(Video by FIBA)