Gilas Pilipinas to meet Australia again seven years after infamous FIBA brawl

Gilas Pilipinas and Australia are on a collision course again, seven years after their controversial brawl at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.

Gilas and the Boomers will duke it out in the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday with the latter out to keep their bid for a third consecutive gold medal alive while the Filipinos are seeking to pull off a major upset.

"We know that they are the pretty much the number one seed in the tournament and for us to beat them is gonna be an upset," Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone on the heels of their 95-88 win against Saudi Arabia early Tuesday.

The Philippines and Australia have faced off five times in FIBA tournaments, most recently during the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers here in the Philippines—a game overshadowed by a bench-clearing brawl.

The game saw 13 players and two coaches ejected and slapped with suspensions from international play, including Japeth Aguilar, Matthew Wright, Terrence Romeo, Jayson Castro, and Andray Blatche.

Australia would run away with victory by default, 89-53, after the Philippines was left with only three players in June Mar Fajardo, Gabe Norwood, and Baser Amer, and they committed intentional fouls to get disqualified.

Both teams now sport completely different looks. The Philippines has only two holdovers from that squad in Fajardo and Aguilar while Australia has none. 

The Boomers, now bannered by Jack McVeigh, Jaylin Galloway, and Reyne Smith, are the favorites to win the game as the two-time defending champions remain unscathed so far in the tournament, beating South Korea, Lebanon, and Qatar to complete a sweep of Group A to punch an outright quarterfinal berth.

Gilas, meanwhile, suffered two narrow losses to Chinese Taipei and New Zealand and needed to pull off crucial victories over Iraq and Saudi Arabia to reach the quarterfinal round.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News