Gilas Pilipinas, the Philippine national basketball team, fell short in their bid to score their first win in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain on Wednesday.
Philippines, who are playing in their first World Championship in almost four decades, suffered another heart-breaking defeat, this time against Puerto Rico, who escaped with a 77-73 win at the Palacio de Deportes in Bilbao.
Philippines waxed hot early in the match and built a 25-13 lead after the opening period, but Puerto Rico countered with their own run in the second period to trim the lead down five points at the half.
Puerto Rico then sustained the momentum in the third period, taking a four-point lead heading into the final quarter. Gilas Pilipinas had several chances to regain the momentum, but Puerto Rico held on to take their first win of the tournament.
JJ Barea, on the of the smallest players in the tournament, had the biggest game on Wednesday as he erupted for 30 points on 8-for-15 shooting from the field and 11-for-12 shooting from the foul line.
"I was going to die out there before I would lose. I could see in my teammates' and coaches' eyes that they were fighting with me. Every followed me," Barea said after the match via FIBA.com.
With the victory, Puerto Rico kept their hopes of advancing to the round of 16 alive, but they need to score another victory on Thursday against Croatia to stay in the hunt.
Meanwhile, Philippines lost their chances of advancing to the round of 16, ending the hopes of millions of Filipinos back home to see their well-loved team reach the knockout stage.
But while they have no more chance of making it into the next round, naturalized Filipino Andray Blatche said that they will go all out in their final game against Senegal on Thursday to end their tournament on a positive note.
"We have one more. Hopefully we can leave with a win instead of just falling short again," Blatche said.
Watch the highlights of Gilas Pilipinas' 77-75 loss to Puerto Rico below. More 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup highlights are available here and on FIBA's official YouTube page.
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