Gilas beats South Korea, 81-78 - July 16, 2021

Frankly I’m a bit shocked, I didn’t expect a Gilas Team composed of mainly Collegiate Players and with no Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Players beating a veteran South Korean (SK) Team with 2 Korea Basketball League (KBL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awardees. 

It seems that Coach Tab Baldwin's Strategy was to use a deep and efficient Rotation of his young Players who has a bit more Stamina and a lot of Enthusiasm to tire out the Koreans. With them tired, then their outside shooting started to lose its efficiency, stunting their offense. 

On the other hand, Gilas’ offense was an overall team effort, with 5 Players scoring in double figures compared to only 2 for SK. Each of those 5 Gilas Players delivered at various moments of the Game. 

I am most impressed with the Point Guards (PG) SJ Belangel and RJ Barrientos, both played with a lot of Maturity, keeping up with the bigger, taller, more experienced South Koreans, with SJ eventually knocking in the Game winning Basket. 

Both PGs dictated the tempo well, distributed the ball effectively and scored when needed. I think these 2 will definitely be the PGs of the future for Gilas. 

Dwight Ramos who was very impressive against the South East Asian (SEA) Teams had a very shaky start, missing Shots and making some Turnovers, but eventually found his bearings and delivered well for Gilas. 

Kai Sotto had a good game, producing good numbers for Gilas, but was hopelessly outplayed by SK’s naturalized Player Ra Gun-ah (formerly Ricardo Ratliffe). I don’t think Kai is anywhere ready yet for the National Basketball Association (NBA), but he’s young and hopefully he will improve to that point in his stint in Australia’s National Basketball League (NBL). 

Gilas naturalized Player Angelo Koume also wasn’t as impressive as Ra Gun-ah, but eventually delivered also during the last moments of the Game, helping the Team get the win. 

Carl Tamayo also played well, showing more of his Low Post Moves this time on Offense as compared to when he played in the Youth Team a couple of Years ago. 

Ramos, Sotto, Koume, Carl Tamayo and Belangel were the 5 Players in double figures in terms of Points in this Game. 

William Navarro was a complete bust on offense, missing all of his 5 shots from the Floor, but he did dish out a team high 3 Assists. 

Justine Baltazar, who I last saw being manhandled by that young Thai Center in the last competitions, contributed well also, grabbing a team high 7 Rebounds, the same number as that of Kai. 

Javier Gomez De Liano who was among those most impressive against the SEA Teams, did not play in the Game but I expect Coach Baldwin to use him in the next Games.