Chot Reyes: Gilas cagers apologetic but stand by what they did

Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes has congratulated the Australian basketball team, adding that the Philippine side was apologetic over the brawl that marred their game on Monday night.

According to a series of tweets by GMA News' Mav Gonzales, Reyes, nonetheless, said that the Filipino cagers were standing by what they did against the Australians in the fight.

"We stand by what we did and at the same time were apologetic. We regret. And hopefully. We wish we didn’t act that way," Reyes said.

Reyes had blamed Australian Daniel Kickert after the Boomer hit Roger Pogoy "with a blind shot on a dead ball."

"That was not a basketball play," Reyes said.

"And for me that’s not being physical. Being physical is fine. It’s part of the game. That’s not being physical. That’s Bullying. And we will never stand for bullying," he added.

Reyes said the Australians still deserved to win.

"I congratulate them. They came in they played a great game. They shut the lights out and they deserved to win. That I understand full well," Reyes said.

"They deserved to win. But we didn’t deserve to get that disrespect or that bullying from there," he added.

Reyes said Pogoy already told Chris Goulding to stop the unnecessary roughhousing.

"They were up by 25. Like what RR said, he told Goulding, 'Stop that already. You’re up by 25.' He told Goulding but still he wouldn’t stop," Reyes said.

Goulding was the Australian player who was repeatedly hit by Filipinos behind a goal post.

"Hopefully we can get by with just a fine. And then hopefully none of the players are suspended for our next game. It’s gonna be against Iran," Reyes said.

"But like I said, that’s just my hope. In the end we will abide by what FIBA decides," he added.

In an interview on ESPN5, Reyes said he had no problem with the taunting and gloating of the Australian Boomers on Gilas Pilipinas as it was all part of basketball, but lines were crossed when they delivered cheap shots, which is already a form of "bullying."

"On our end I'm very particular about it to play the game the right way. And... that's basketball, if they want to act like whatever when they're up and gloat and taunt us, that is fine. But there's a line between gloating, taunting and bullying," Reyes said.

"I thought then, when Kickert got that cheap shot on Pogoy during a dead ball, that was bullying, and they were not going to be bullied," he added.

The game became a blowout in third quarter when Australia led the Philippines 79-48.

"We've been receiving end of blow outs before. Korea blew us out in FIBA Asia. We've given out blow outs, we've blewn out Chinese Taipei. But you don't see our players taunting, we don't do those things," Reyes said.

Reyes also clarified on his 'hit somebody' video, saying it was a basketball instruction to foul early so Australia could not get out on fastbreaks. —with a report from Jamil Santos/NB, GMA News