FIBA 3x3 OQT: Gilas gets blanked in Graz

The Road to Tokyo for the Philippines in the 3x3 basketball tournament for the Summer Olympics might be well and truly over before it even began, as they are shut out of their opening two games in Graz, Austria Wednesday afternoon (evening Manila time).

Led by the country’s top 3x3 cager and 2021 PBA draft top overall pick Joshua Munzon, the fourteenth seed Gilas were blown out in successive games to eleventh seed Qatar and fourth ranked Slovenia on opening day to share the cellar with the eighteenth-seed Dominican Republic, with a superior point differential spared them from being the bottom team.

The Qataris made a quick work on Gilas, firing in the game’s first seven points before finishing them off 21-12 to go 2-0, after after scraping past Dominican Republic 17-12 in their opener.

Taking it from deep, the men from the Gulf hit six rainbow deuces in a one-sided contest, shooting almost 52% from the field in the process, as opposed to just 8/23 for the Filipinos.

Abdulrahman Saad and Nedim Muslic torched those Austrian nets en route to 10 and 9 markers respectively, with the latter finishing off the game with 1:44 remaining with a booming triple in front of CJ Perez.

For Gilas, Munzon and Perez were held to just 5 points apiece as the quality of the Qataris were too much to handle, as they were coached by none other than the GOAT 3x3 cager in Serbia’s Dusan Bulut.

In the second game, the inexperienced caused by the chemistry differences between the PBA pros and those grizzled veterans of the Chooks-to-Go 3x3 were more glaring as Slovenia also blew out the Filipinos, 21-11 thanks to their 56% field goal shooting after torturing them with crisp ball movement all game long.

Although Gilas got close early on in the game when they made the first bucket and were even at two apiece, the Slovenians launched an 11-0 blast that spanned almost three minutes to knock the wind out of the Filipinos’ sails en route to finishing the day at 1-1, after being at the wrong end of a close two-point defeat to sixth-seed France in their tournament debut.

Simon Finzgar, who is ranked 18th globally in 3x3, scored a game-high 9 points for the Slovenes, in which his free throw off a Munzon foul ended the game with 2:17 left in the contest. Aside from the clinching freebie, he was perfect from beyond the arc on all three of his attempts in the final game of the morning session.

Gašper Ovnik (FIBA rank 23) and Anže Srebovt (FIBA rank 31) each had 6 to help Finzgar.

Munzon had improved his output by putting in 7 for Gilas.

Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 will resume its campaign on Friday afternoon in Austria (afternoon Manila time), as they play on the cellar dwelling Dominicans first before wrapping up its stint against Les Bleus.

The scores:

First Game:

Qatar 21 – Saad 10, Muslic 9, Ndoye 2, Saeed 0

Philippines 12 – Perez 10, Munzon 10, Santillan 1, Tautuaa 1

Second game:

Slovenia 21 – Finzgar 9, Ovnik 6, Srebovt 6, Kavgic 0

Philippines 11 – Munzon 7, Perez 3, Tautuaa 1, Santillan 0

PHOTOS: FIBA