Gilas Pilipinas felt the pinch of big man Kai Sotto’s absence when it suffered a 60-71 loss to the world’s no. 12 Brazil in the semifinals on Saturday of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia.
Coach Tim Cone said it was tough when they went against Brazil without the 7’3” Sotto, who sustained a battered rib during Gilas’ game against Georgia last Thursday.
Naturalized Georgian Joe Thomasson tried to steal the ball away from Sotto in the last 6:42 of the second quarter and collided with the young Filipino cager instead.
Sotto went down on the floor holding his rib cage, grimacing in pain, with Thomasson landing on top of him.
The Gilas slotman was cleared to play by doctors in the semifinal game against the Brazilians, but Sotto said the pain still bothered him, forcing Cone to sit him out.
This led to the extended play of 6’10” Junemar Fajardo, with Brazil’s coach Aleksandr Petrovic putting two players to guard against him.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but losing Kai was big for us. Because it took our depth in the frontline, and forced Junemar to have to overplay his minutes. Bottomline is, we were not good enough tonight, and we gotta be better,” said Cone.
Brazil has advanced to the finals for a showdown with Latvia, which beat Cameroon, 72-59, in the other semis encounter. Rihards Lomazs led Latvia with 20 points.
The winner of their finals encounter will get a seat in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The last time the Philippines competed in Olympic basketball was at the 1972 Summer games in Munich.
Back then, a Filipino team was led by eventual PBA superstars William “Bogs” Adornado, Danny Florencio, Manny Paner and Rosalio “Yoyong” Martirez.
