Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone during a game against New Zealand in the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers. –FIBA PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Gilas Pilipinas got caught in a whirlwind of offense from New Zealand in its last game of the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup Qualifiers.
But it was also its poor start that spelled the Filipinos’ doom, allowing the Kiwis to pull away and forcing the visitors to once again play catch up just like their match against Chinese Taipei a days ago.
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READ: Gilas ends Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers with big loss to New Zealand
“They came out and smashed us early. [They] gave us smashmouth in the first quarter and we just never recovered,” said Cone after their 87-70 loss at the hands of New Zealand at Spark Arena in Auckland on Sunday.
“They came out with guns firing… We were just playing off our heels the whole game trying to recover from that early barrage.”
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Gilas Pilipinas ahead of its match up against 2025 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers. –FIBA PHOTO
New Zealand came out firing on all cylinders to take a 30-15 lead over the Philippines at the end of the opening salvo.
Then, the Tall Blacks just went on an offensive clinic that the Philippines just couldn’t fight back from– hitting 10 triples in the first half alone for a 55-33 lead.
LIVE: Gilas Pilipinas vs New Zealand at 2025 Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers
It certainly didn’t help Gilas’ that it struggled to get any momentum of sorts, until late in the game when Chris Newsome sparked a run that New Zealand immediately quelled.
“We couldn’t hit shots here or there. Maybe we would’ve gotten the game closer [if we did] but as it turns out, they ran away from it,” said the coach.
Tohi Smith-Milner gave the Philippines a hard time on defense as he finished with 25 points and nine rebounds built on five three-point buckets in the victory that gave New Zealand the top seed in Group B of the qualifiers.
READ: Gilas coach Tim Cone takes all the blame for loss to Chinese Taipei
On the Philippines’ side, Chris Newsome and Justin Brownlee dropped 13 and 10 points, respectively, but to no avail as they dropped to 4-2 at the end of the qualifiers.
Cone, despite the loss, gave credit to the Tall Blacks for a tough fight.
“They’re a great team. We knew they were going to be great coming in, we knew they would be excited to defend home court so none of those surprised us,” he said.
“We just wish we played a bit better and gave them a better fight.”