Gilas Pilipinas: Guiao says Serbia has good chance against USA

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Yeng Guiao had nothing but praise for Serbia following the European powerhouse’s 126-67 thrashing of the Philippines in the 2019 FIBA World Cup group stages in China.

For the 2nd game in a row, Gilas lost by a huge margin to a superior squad as they got eliminated.

“Serbia is just too big and too good. I think they have a really good chance against the USA and other teams,” said Guiao.

“We just tried to keep the game close as we can, but apparently we didn’t keep it too close that long.”

Gilas did enjoy a good spurt where it led 9-7 over the Serbians in the opening minutes of the game, before the squad flipped the switch for a comfortable and commanding 62-35 halftime lead.

Serbia shot an impeccable 75% from the field, with 7 of their players finishing in double-digit scoring.

Guiao also mentioned that the Philippines failed to deliver from the 3-point line once again, as they shot 4/24 from long range.

Given that outside shooting is one of the better weapons for the squad, failing to utilize it made it more difficult for the nationals to make a respectable game out of Serbia.

“There is just no way we can beat them inside the paint, so our hope really was to make our outside shots which we did not,” said Guiao.

“That’s really the best chance we had of keeping the game close which didn’t happen. We knew that this team can shoot the outside shot, even their bigs.”

Gilas will wrap up their first round campaign against Angola on Wednesday.