Thirdy Ravena leads Gilas past India. Photo from SBP.ph
(UPDATED) Gilas Pilipinas bounced back with a huge 101-59 win over India in the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup on Friday, days after yielding to Lebanon in Jakarta, Indonesia.
William Navarro came off the bench with 18 points on 6-of-7 field goal shooting and 2 triples.
Thirdy Ravena, who shrugged off a cut he sustained against Lebanon, had 17 points to go with his 5 rebounds. Ray Parks added 12 markers.
From an 18-point game at the half, the nationals unleashed the full assault in the second half for a 42-point separation against India. They also held the Indians to just 10 points in the third period.
Gilas made 59 percent of their shots, 44 percent from 3-point territory, while limiting India to just 36 percent. The nationals also forced the Indian squad to commit 23 turnovers, which led to 28 points on the other end.
It was a rebound Gilas needed after it opened its FIBA Asia Cup campaign with a loss to Lebanon, 95-80.
"We wanted to come into this ball game and make sure that we come up with a better performance than our last game," said Gilas coach Chot Reyes. "That's number one — to be able to play at our level, a certain level."
"I must admit, we started the game pretty rough. But the players were able to recover and I thought we were able to put a lot of pressure on the other team."
With the win, the nationals have qualified for the next round of the tournament.
On Sunday, Gilas will take on New Zealand, which humiliated the nationals with a 106-60 beating in the recent FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers in Auckland.
Ravena said they would not want to make the same mistakes when they take on New Zealand.
"They're a very very strong team … they will definitely punish us if we make those (mistakes again) in that game," he said.
"So we have to improve with some of our technicalities, tactics in the game."