RIGA (Latvia) - Arena Riga was ready for another happy-ending evening, celebrating Latvia's 1st position in Group A to directly get to the Semi-Finals of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2024.
However, the Philippines traveled this far to ruin the show. Tim Cone's national team played fearlessly since the start of their debuting encounter and won 89-80 in upsetting fashion.
Turning Point
Turning points in basketball usually happen when one team breaks the opponent's flow.
Instead, the Philippines won this game right when Latvia was appearing back into the picture, early in the first quarter. Starting the game on an 8-0 run, Tim Cone called timeout as the carmine red-and-white side recovered at 21-16 after a three by Janis Strelnieks.
The Philippines came back to the court more determined than ever, entering an 11-0 run to close the first quarter up 32-16 following a clutch buzzer-beater by CJ Perez. Latvia tried to desperately come back late into the game, but it wasn't enough.
TCL Player of the Game
He wasn't there for the Philippines in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, but Justin Brownlee knows his teammates pretty well. And he perfectly showed that against Latvia.
Managing his team's possession on the offensive end for the vast majority of the encounter or coming off the screen to drive to the basket, he did it all tonight.
Coming closer than ever to a triple-double, he was rightfully named TCL Player of the Game after delivering 26 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists in a 33-efficiency showdown for a historic Philippine victory.
Stats don't lie
Since when Luca Banchi took over at the helm of the Latvian national team, they have been putting on a flow-motion show almost every time they've entered courts.
But players can't get involved if the ball isn't shared well. That's what happened tonight, where the home side only shot 9/39 from beyond the arc. Against Georgia, they ended by converting 12/29 from three-point range.
Bottom line
The Philippines wrote nothing but history in Riga tonight: this is their first victory against a European team in 64 years! The last time it happened was during the 1960 Olympic Games against Spain, winning 84-82.
Latvia seemed so well-prepared in their debut against Georgia that this version of Luca Banchi's national team almost looked unrecognizable.
In the first half, they shared only 6 assists, trailing 53-36 and being dominated in the paint by the opposing side. They were leading 45-24 yesterday. Moreover, the Philippines never scored more than 42 points at halftime in last year's World Cup.
Finally, reading "Latvia will qualify if the Philippines win by 27 points or less" in FIBA's Permutations article looked like a joke. Only a few hours later, it's reality. That's probably the only positive news for Luca Banchi's team after such a surprising defeat.
They said
"Our country is so passionate about basketball. Pretty much everybody knows that by now. For us to be successful on the world stage really means a lot. This is a big huge step for us." Philippines head coach, Tim Cone "We didn't execute our offense and didn't do our job in defense, that was the initial focus. We let them play their game and they were responding. We didn't make our shots and we lost our energy in defense, we were lacking." Latvia forward, Rodions Kurucs "The Philippines had an excellent performance from the very beginning, they were very sharp, imposed their physicality, and found good solutions in the offense. That's a good lesson for us. This can set the tone for such a tournament. Croatia had an amazing win against Slovenia and today they lost to New Zealand, a fresher team like the Philippines." Latvia head coach, Luca Banchi
FIBA