NT Press Release: Pilipinas beats Switzerland, 73-49
Team Pilipinas advanced to the second round of the Season 52 Consolation tournament, beating Switzerland on Monday, 73-49.
“We really need to work on our scoring efficiency. We cannot afford to shoot 35-40% in the field in the next round,” Coach Lord Woody said via text message when asked to comment on the team’s win. “The saving grace was the Swiss could not convert their 3-point shots. Had they made 5 or 6 of those shots, we would have changed our game plan.”
Bigman Royce Cardino led Team Pilipinas with a double-double, tallying 14 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 assists in 28 minutes of playing time. “It was close in the first quarter, good thing we were able to regroup and outplay them in the second quarter to pull away.”
It was tense moment when the Filipino faithful found out Macedonia had a chance in knocking out favorite Estonia in their elimination game. The crowd cheered for the Macedonian team as the Estonian lead was down to 3 with less than 2 minutes left in the game. Estonia eventually won, 108-100. “I was hoping we would face Macedonia in the next round, but playing against Estonia is also fine. If they were able to keep it close and almost beat the Estonia, what more if that were us? We will make our preparations, I can promise we will give it our all when we face them this Monday”, Coach Lord Woody said also in a text message.
Filipino fans celebrated the victory by buying all the Swiss cheese they can find in patisseries around the Back to Back Arena.