Cone disappointed after Gilas Pilipinas' heartbreaking loss to New Zealand, but lauds young players

It was a frustrating night for Philippine men's basketball team Gilas Pilipinas after it fell to New Zealand, 106-102, in double overtime in the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers on Friday, but head coach Tim Cone still found positives to take away from the defeat, particularly the performances of the team's young core.

The loss marked the Philippines' second narrow defeat to the Tall Blacks in the qualifiers, following a 69-66 setback in February.

"It would've been nice to be able to come down here and steal a game, it would've been special. The fact that we came as close as we did, obviously it's a huge disappointment," Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone said.

"We had chances in regulation and both overtimes to win that basketball game, we just came up short. Bottomline was our guys came to play," he added.

“Went down by 12, I think 11 or 12 points early in the game and battled back. Got ahead by seven I think and, but again we just couldn't hold it. But you know, we missed some free throws, probably fouled a few times we should have and, and that was really the story of the game.”

Dwight Ramos shared Cone's disappointment but praised the team's effort against one of the world's top basketball nations.

“It was a good game. It's tough when we lose that close, especially when we, like coach said, we had it. We had chances to win and then we let it go. But I'm very proud of the team because we came here and played against one of the top teams in the world and we were right there to win the game,” Ramos said.

“So we never gave up despite us going down and it was, it was a good game. Very proud of the team.”

Despite the result, Cone said he was encouraged by the continued development of Kevin Quiambao, Juan Gomez de Liaño, and Carl Tamayo.

“You try to win with your veterans and you develop your young guys and our young guys have been developing over the last year and a half, two years and every time they've come into a window, they've gotten better,” Cone said.

“That was the vision from the very beginning when we put this team together. That they at one point would be the main guys and it may be coming a little more quickly than we thought, but they are certainly stepping up and, playing at a much higher level than they were when they were first on the team.”

Quiambao and Gomez de Liaño each scored 23 points to lead Gilas, while Tamayo added 17 points.

The Philippines will next face Australia on Monday in its final first-round game of the qualifiers.

—JKC, GMA News