Gilas Pilipinas defeated Taiwan Mustangs, 74-64, in a tune-up game on Monday, June 23, at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
Dwight Ramos scored 19 points, while Justin Brownlee finished with 12 points and 15 assists for the Philippine national men's basketball team to claim victory before the squad flies to Europe as part of their preparations for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament in Riga, Latvia.
Oscar Lopez registered 15 points and former PBA star Alex Cabagnot added 13 points to pace the Mustangs.
Gilas Pilipinas head coach Tim Cone admitted that the national team still needs to do a lot of work to prepare for the Olympic qualifiers where the Filipinos will face Latvia, and Georgia.
"We got to be better. We got to defend better, we got to play better," Cone told reporters after the tune-up game.
"That's why we had this game so we can have a feel of where we are at. We are not where we want to be yet but we have time to get better," he stressed.
Cone mentioned that the national team only started praticing together last Friday, June 21, at the Inspire Sports Academy in Laguna.
"We were a little bit of confused but we came out second half, we got it little figured out and played better," the 25-time PBA champion coach said.
Gilas Pilipinas will also have tune-up games against Turkey on Thursday, June 27, and Poland on Sunday, June 30.
