With show of puso, Gilas can walk away feeling like winners, says Serbian correspondent

For Gilas Pilipinas' campaign in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, GMA News Online connected with Milos Jovanovic, a veteran Serbian sportswriter, to help break things down from an outside perspective. Read his previews of the Philippines-Serbia game and the Philippines-Dominican Republic game.

There is an old Serbian saying that the “battles are not fought with your shiny weapons, but rather with the hearts of the heroes.” While the hardcourt battle in Aleksandar Nikolic Hall was ultimately won by the Serbians, who are not short of basketball weaponry, let it not be forgotten that the Gilas played their hearts out, hung tight, and nearly booked a mythical win.

And that, in my books at least, should count for something.

The first twenty-five minutes of the game followed the script closely. With Gilas coach Tab Baldwin lining out his troops in a zone defense, ostensibly to counter the low post threat offered by Marjanovic, Serbia turned to three-point shooting and Dobric and Andjusic delivered. The Gilas backcourt looked overmatched during that spell, with plenty of easy turnovers and off-key passes ending up in the stands.

The Serbian spell of dominance extended into the third period, with the Eagles taking a commanding 16-point lead on a Dejan Davidovac layup with 6:53 on the clock. Three minutes later, it was 61-47 with Filip Petrusev putting back an offensive rebound following an Avramovic miss.

But after that, it was puso time.

Buoyed by the support from the stands, which was not just the lonesome few (the author could almost swear he heard the mythical Ginebra screaming lady every time Serbia missed the shot), Gilas reverted to what they know best, and what ultimately is the Filipino basketball DNA – attack the basket, create wing surplus, kick it out and just don’t give up.

Serbians, somewhat enchanted by their reputation and superiority, decided that they should give chase and the game soon regressed into a series of haphazard transition encounters. Which might have looked interesting to the crowd in the hall, but not to me. I’ve seen hundreds of PBA games, and this rang eerily familiar. This, I said to myself, could be trouble.

Spearheaded by Carl Tamayo, Jordan Heading, and Ange Kouame, Gilas started chipping away at the lead and playing themselves into pole position. It was Kouame, the raw Ivorian-Filipino recruit, that looked best prepared for the bright lights of Belgrade. On the floor of the hall that saw many legendary winners and even more hall of fame entrants, Kouame showed absolutely no fear despite matching up to the man-mountain that is Boban Marjanovic.

The Ateneo pivot won many encounters of the night – he was scoring with his hook shot and from midrange, he was there for the pick and rolls and the backdoors, and he even helped himself to one three-pointer – all the while, he was holding his own against Marjanovic and Petrusev to the best of his ability, forcing Boban to attempt many difficult turnaround shots from outside of his comfort zone.

“(Kouame and Sotto) gave us a hard time, especially without Bjelica out there on the court,” Serbian center Filip Petrusev admitted in a short post-game statement. “We were forced to play a bit smaller than usual, and they attacked us especially from the four spot. They are talented - no question, and they gave us their all,” added Petrusev, who just had an MVP season in the Adriatic Basketball League.

The Serbians did indeed miss Nemanja Bjelica, as well as Nikola Kalinic and Vasilije Micic, who warmed up with the team but was held out as a precaution. Adding insult to the injury (quite literally) was the accident that befell Stefan Jovic late in the fourth quarter – the veteran point suddenly lost footing during a routine drive to the hoop and clutched his calf in agony. He was helped off the court, seemingly unable to limp off on his own – never a good sign, especially not with so many absences already.

Gilas eventually drew level at the 67-point mark, then took half a basket worth of lead with three minute left. Staring into the eyes of an unlikely defeat, Serbia resorted to thrusting the ball down low to Marjanovic and the big man responded – his 25 points, to go with 10 rebounds, were the winning performance of the night. But it certainly didn’t come easy.

While Petrusev was complimentary about Sotto, I was left a bit unimpressed by his performance. With his superior mobility and lanky frame, the 19-year old fresh Adelaide 36ers recruit showed little in terms of scoring prowess in this game, being only too happy to fall back to his midrange jumper, which betrayed him on numerous occasions.

Marjanovic was only too happy to stay in the drop while Sotto kept clanking one midrange shot after another, winding up with only three baskets out of 13 attempts (0-for-3 from three-point range). If Gilas are to live up to their potential, Sotto must shed his reluctance to attack the rim. And with Eloy Vargas a late scratch from the Dominican Republic lineup, his height advantage will be a big asset in the post.

But if we are to speak about potential, Gilas have it. Due credit must go to coach Baldwin, who gelled this relatively inexperienced squad into a formidable unit at a rather short notice. It is especially impressive to see Kouame play like this. And to me, it was a welcome sight.

Seeing an import player – historically just a scoring tool in Filipino basketball – work hard for every rebound, and sweat it out for every point must work wonders for team spirit and morale. By showing his battle colours in such fashion, Kouame went a long way toward capturing the nation’s heart.

Summed up, Gilas played a very good game tonight, and will walk away feeling winners despite the scoreline. The Dominicans, who are coming off a day’s rest following a defeat to Serbia, will not roll that easy – they have shown a serious physical side to their game, frustrating Marjanovic with a series of hard fouls, nearly infuriating the big man to the point of jawing at the refs. They will try the same with the Philippines, and will look to impose their will and tempo early on.

And should this team, which was only few jumpers away from beating Serbia at home, who came back from 16-point deficit, and won over the neutral supporter, yield to that? Unlikely, I say.

Just play your own game Gilas, and play it with heart. As we’ve all seen with our own eyes tonight, the ball, indeed, is round, and anything can happen.

Milos Jovanovic is a veteran sportswriter based in Belgrade, Serbia, mostly writing about basketball. His past credits include VICE Serbia where he ran the weekly sports column. He also hosts a weekly hoops podcast to be found at the Serbian MONDO news outlet website, and has contributed to and directed several basketball-themed documentaries which were aired on TV nationally. He is fluent in Serbian, English and Dutch and prefers to be left alone when Red Star Belgrade are playing.

—JMB, GMA News