Gilas Pilipinas may have suffered a 46-point beatdown at the hands of Italy but the team still deserves admiration for showing “grit and passion” in the lopsided loss, a Palace official said.
Gilas bowed to Italy, 62-108, at the start of the 2019 FIBA World Cup at Foshan International Sports and Cultural Center in China last Saturday.
In a statement, Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said, “it’s not always the winning that counts, it’s how the game is played.”
Panelo added that the final score did not reflect how Gilas played.
“In the end we were outplayed and outscored but not without displaying some flashes of brilliance, although few and far between,” Panelo added in the statement as per a report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“It’s not always the winning that counts; it’s how the game is played. Our Filipino players played with grit and passion.And for that they deserve our admiration,” he added.
President Rodrigo Duterte watched the game and even gave Gilas a pre-game pep talk.
“We are here to give you the spirit to fight, kaya natin ‘to (we can do this),” said Duterte, who had said in the past that Gilas won’t stand a chance against the taller and bigger Italians.
