Gilas Pilipinas in the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Photo from FIBA. 

Gilas Pilipinas fell short of advancing to the finals of the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Despite holding an advantage after the first 20 minutes of play, with the Nationals even at one point putting up a 12-point lead over Brazil, they went flat in the second half and absorbed a heartbreak against their semifinals counterpart.

READ: Gilas Pilipinas' Olympics hopes dashed after second-half meltdown against Brazil

Gilas coach Tim Cone offered no excuses about their defeat and said that the Brazilians simply showed why they are the 12th best basketball team in the world.

"I don't know what to say. You know, it's funny how we didn't expect to be here. But then, when we got here, we expected to win. It's very painful that we didn't," he said during the postgame presser.

"After having the halftime lead and coming out and then going on a twelve-to-zero or fourteen-to-zero run [from Brazil] to start the third quarter was painful to watch. There's a reason Brazil is the 12th-ranked team in the world and they proved it tonight," he continued.

A major factor in the loss was the absence of young center Kai Sotto, who sat out the game after sustaining an injury in their group stage game against Georgia. Gilas Pilipinas only had 10 able bodies against Brazil, and Cone acknowledged that Sotto's absence affected their depth and rotation.

"We don't wanna make excuses but losing Kai was big for us because it just took away our depth in the frontline," said the Barangay Ginebra coach.

"It forced June Mar Fajardo to have to overplay minutes, and that kind of all mushroomed it right there. We're just lacking a big. We had to overplay our frontline. More than anything."

"June Mar got really tired of having to battle numbers 51 (Bruno Caboclo) and 6 (Cristiano Felicio). Those were two guys that were getting it up and rotating on him. It was a tough battle for him being there by himself," added Cone of Fajardo who had to play over 30 minutes.

However, Cone also made it clear that they just simply fell short and are still in need of more improvement.

"But the bottom line is we just weren't good enough tonight and we gotta be better," he stressed.

"You know — almost winning, almost getting there, almost that — it's not good enough. We gotta find a way to get over the hump and get there."

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