The Philippine Men’s Basketball Team, Gilas Pilipinas suffered their first loss in the hands of a Lithuanian club, LSU-Baltai on their third match against the Lithuanian at Svyturio Arena in Klaipeda, Lithuania.
Their friendly match against LSU-Baltai is their third outings on their series of exhibition games against Lithuanian club for their training camp held in the Europe as preparation for the upcoming FIBA Asia Championship.
The game ended with the final score at 89-86 in favor of Lithuania, although the Gilas boys faced a not so taller team compared to their previous two wins but the team were composed of outside shooters.
The LSU-Bantai club was able to pour out a total of 15 three pointers led by Vidmantas Sragauskis who scored with 23 points in 5 of 12 from three point range.
According to National Coach Chot Reyes, fatigue started to wrestle his team and their duty right now is on how the players and the entire coaching staff would react to the situation as they will face a tougher opponent in the next series of games first against the Lithuanian Under 20 national team, the defending FIBA Euro U-20 champions.
The Gilas Pilipinas is schedule to face the National U-20 team of Lithuania twice-in-a-row before getting another crack at LSU-Baltai in the last of their six-game schedule in the training camp.
Before the loss, Gilas continued to bond as one special team winning their first two games – 74-63 over Birstono Jazz Direnta and 81-76 against Klaipedos-Neptunas.