Gilas Pilipinas, tinalo ang world No. 6 Latvia sa FIBA OQT

Transcript

00:00GILAS Pilipinas invited the World No. 6 Latvia to challenge the host country in an exciting offset

00:08in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia.

00:11Here's Rafael Bandairel.

00:15It's a good start for GILAS Pilipinas after defeating the host team Latvia in their first game

00:25in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia on Thursday early in the morning.

00:31From the start, the Filipinos felt their presence when they scored an 8-0 lead.

00:37Their momentum and momentum continued until the third quarter

00:42when GILAS won by 26 points, 74-48.

00:48Despite this, the host team didn't give up easily

00:52and GILAS' lead was gradually reduced to 10 in the last 5 minutes of the game.

01:00But to the rescue, Justin Brownlee scored a 3-pointer with a foul.

01:07The 4-point play was completed by a naturalized player to end Latvia's comeback.

01:14Brownlee finished with the most points in his 26 points with 9 rebounds and 9 assists.

01:21Soto surprised the world by scoring 18 points and 8 rebounds.

01:45I'm very blessed and very happy that we got the win tonight and no one got injured.

01:49I'm just happy that everyone contributed for the win.

01:52No matter how sweet this victory is, Coach Tim Cohn admitted that they can't celebrate

01:58because he expects that their next game won't be easy.

02:03Like I said, our country is so passionate about the basketball.

02:06There is a lot of intense pressure to succeed.

02:09I know it seems like we haven't been successful, but that doesn't mean anything to our team.

02:15They want us to be successful all the time.

02:18So we have to turn around and play Georgia tomorrow at 3 o'clock, early game.

02:23Our country is going to expect this.

02:26This Thursday at 8 p.m., the second game of GILAS Pilipinas in the OQT

02:31versus Georgia, which is the 23rd in the FIBA rankings.

02:36GILAS will be able to enter the semifinals of the tournament if they can win this game.

02:41If they lose, they will still advance as long as Georgia doesn't reach 18 points.

02:47Rafael Bandayrel for Pambansang TV in Bagong, Philippines.