A weary Justin Brownlee breathes a sigh of relief as his 36-point eruption does not go for naught in Gilas Pilipinas' one-point escape of Iran to clinch its first Asian Games semifinal berth in 21 years
MANILA, Philippines – By the skin of its teeth, Gilas Pilipinas survived a massive comeback by Iran from 17 points down in the fourth quarter and earned a 19th Asian Games semifinal berth by a single point,In a frantic endgame that saw the Iranians even briefly take an 81-80 lead after trailing 54-71, it was the heroics of six-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo and naturalized star import Justin Brownlee that barely pushed the Philippines over the edge and into its first Asian Games semifinal round...
It was only right that Brownlee had a final say in the outcome, as it was him who led the Gilas rally on offense with 36 big points – 16 coming in the first quarter alone and 15 in the third. When the dust had settled, the weary 35-year-old forward could only utter a short, but familiar line.
“In the international game, things can turn on a dime, and this did in the fourth quarter,” Cone said. “Luckily we had a big lead. We should have never put ourselves in that position, but that’s the way these kinds of games are.” “I think we did a good job in the first three quarters, but when they threw a wrench into our plans with that box-and-one [defensive scheme], we just kind of struggled,” he continued. “I think the Iranian coach did a great job bringing his team back.”
Brownlee, Cone, and the rest of Gilas will need to quickly move on and learn from this quarterfinal heart-stopper as an all too familiar foe, host country China, awaits on Wednesday, October 4, 8 pm, one month after the two nations’ blockbusterWith no Jordan Clarkson for Gilas nor Kyle Anderson for China this time to save the day, the two sides will have to rework their outlook against each other as a whole new game complexion awaits in Zhejiang.
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