FIBA 3x3 OQT: Gilas misses out on Tokyo, ends up winless

It is the brutal end of the road for the Philippines in their hopes of making it to the Tokyo Olympics as they were shut out by both Dominican Republic and France to wrap up their Pool C campaign without a single win in the FIBA 3x3 Olympic Qualifying tournament in Graz, Austria Friday afternoon (evening Manila time).

Needing more than just a miracle to progress into the knockout phase after losing their first two games in the capital city of the state of Styria, coach Ronnie Magsanoc’s Gilas were given a huge dent in their chances when Mo Tautuaa was injured yesterday.

With the absence of the San Miguel Beerman and the unavailability of reserve forward Alvin Pasaol, Gilas only had the trio of Joshua Munzon, CJ Perez and Leonard Santillan for their final two games, alongside a sizeable Filipino support in the makeshift arena at Hauptplatz.

As such in the battle of the two winless sides, 18-seed Dominican Republic used its full strength to knock Gilas out of Olympic contention in a 22-11 rout in which they imposed their size as they knocked in 67% of their shots from inside the arc.

Pulling away in spurts to keep the Asian side at bay, Bryant Piantini led the Dominicans with 8 points as he hit half of his scoring inside, but hit the game clinching deuce to end the contest with 3.3 seconds remaining in the contest to keep themselves afloat for qualifying in the knockout quarterfinals.

For the Philippines, the country’s top-ranked player had 8 points, including a pair of rainbow shots, in a losing effort as he began in what could have been his farewell tour in the 3x3 circuit.

With only pride left to play, Gilas battled it hard against the sixth-seeded and unbeaten French and actually averted the ignominy of losing all games before the buzzer sounded, but it was still not enough as the European side came out with a tense 15-14 win which was riddled by fouls right from the get go, as the referees whistled 15 of them all game long.

Despite not having two of their best players in Kevin Corre and Lucas Dussoulier, 88^th-ranked Dominique Gentil had a team-high five markers for Franch, with Antoine Eito and Charly Pontens adding four apiece in which they shot 9/15 from the field in the contest to remain unbeaten. Raphael Wilson pitched in two points.

On his very final game for 3x3, Munzon had a game-high seven markers including the buzzer beating deuce for the final count.

At the end of the pool play, France topped their group with an unbeaten 4-0 record with Slovenia nipping the Dominican Republic and Qatar by a superior point difference after a three-way tie at 2-2.

The Philippines meanwhile, finished its campaign with an 0-4 record and a horrible point difference of -31.

The scores

First game:

Dominican Republic 22 – Piantini 8, Valdez 7, Reyes 4, Rivera 3

Philippines 11 – Munzon 8, Perez 2, Santillan 1

Second Game

France 15 – Gentil 5, Eito 4, Pontens 4, Wilson 2

Philippines 14 – Munzon 7, Perez 5, Santillan 2

PHOTOS: FIBA