Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone during a game against Australia in the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup. –FIBA PHOTO
Coach Tim Cone conceded that Gilas Pilipinas had no answer for the way Australia played in their lopsided quarterfinal match that ended their campaign in the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup.
Gilas went down, 84-60, on Wednesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after the Boomers raced to a massive lead thanks to their outside shooting that left Cone lamenting on what the team could have done better.
HIGHLIGHTS: Gilas Pilipinas vs Australia – 2025 Fiba Asia Cup quarterfinals
“The tournament’s over for us and in the big scheme of things, we’re not pleased with what happened,” Cone said during the postgame press conference. “This is a great team to be around and I’m proud and honored to be on this team and with the guys. But tonight was not a good performance for us.”
The Philippines came in as a huge underdog against an Australian side that dominated group play by winning all three games, and the hope was that it could show the grit that helped Gilas sneak past host Saudi Arabia in overtime during their qualification game less than 48 hours earlier.
Gilas Pilipinas Justin Brownlee against Australia during the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup quarterfinals. –FIBA PHOTO
But Australia leaned on the hot shooting of Jaylin Galloway, the heady plays of guard Owen Foxwell and the all-around showing of Xavier Cooks to lead by a high of 26 points.
Justin Brownlee was held to just 10 points after attempting just seven shots, leaving Kevin Quiambao, Dwight Ramos and even AJ Edu to do most of the job in trying to make the contest competitive at least, but to no avail.
READ: Gilas Pilipinas exits Fiba Asia Cup after big loss to Australia
“I didn’t think we stepped up as much as we wanted to,” said Cone. “No doubt that the Australian athleticism and length [were a factor]. Even though you see it on video, when you get up there and start playing against them, you realize that they’re very superior.
“So we just had a hard time staying in front of them, we had a hard time challenging their threes, they moved the ball really well and they got shots quick. We tried to keep it at a slower pace but we didn’t have enough discipline to do that throughout the game. And the Aussies did a good job defending Justin, limiting him to seven shots,” added Cone.
Gilas ended a campaign that began on a rough note with losses to Chinese-Taipei and New Zealand before getting into the knockout rounds by defeating Iraq, not after enduring a similar slow start and difficulty stopping the three-point shot.
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These will all be addressed by Cone and the team, and they now shift their attention to the 2027 Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers, which start with the November window, as they face Australia and New Zealand once more while taking on Guam in Group A.