Stifling New Zealand defence in the second quarter, constrained the Philippines to just six points through the first seven minutes, while the Tall Blacks continued to pour in points and maintain a healthy lead.
As in their nature though, the Philippines grinded their way back into the quarter – eliminating the Tall Blacks lead to tie proceedings at the half, 37-a-piece.
The home side carried a little bit of that momentum into the opening possessions of the second half, Ramos and Brownlee converting a couple of easy buckets to put Gilas up four.
It didn’t take long for the Tall Blacks to strike back, a Jordan Ngatai corner trey levelling the scores at 41.
Tyrell Harrison gave the Tall Blacks the lead back, thanks to a thundering poster slam over AJ Edu, as momentum begun to swing back the way of the New Zealanders.
Reuben Te Rangi and McNaught knocked down the Tall Blacks seventh and eighth triples of the evening, as the Tall Blacks pushed their lead out to 10 with a tick over a minute left to play in the penultimate quarter.
As they did in the third quarter, the Philippines got off to a hot start, with four points in the opening 38 seconds of the fourth.
Mennenga’s effort on both ends of the floor was evident throughout this game, as his putback bucket in the fourth secured him another double-double.
Te Rangi hit another triple to extend the Tall Black lead again, before Gilas went on another run to tighten the game to a two-possession game with a minute and half left to play.
Ramos hit a triple for the Philippines to cut the lead to two, before hustle and effort down the other end saw Yanni Wetzell convert after multiple New Zealand efforts on the glass.
Another clutch bucket from Ramos, saw New Zealand’s lead again cut down to two.
After a Te Rangi free throw miss, the Philippines had an opportunity to send the game to overtime with Ramos missing a bank triple on the buzzer.
Coach Judd Flavell’s message to the team post game, pretty simple.
“We came here to get the win, and we got the job done.”
A huge focal point for the Tall Blacks was stopping Gilas superstar Justin Brownlee. Despite averaging 24 points against the Tall Blacks in their last three matchups, he was held to just four points.
“He’s given us the business before and in recent games, so he was a large focal point for us. I thought that went a long way for us defensively tonight,” Flavell said.
“It helps that we’ve played each other a lot and it obviously helps them with us too and our system. But we know he takes a lot of attention. He’s a true international scorer, so the intention was that we’ve just got to be within touching distance of him at all times.”
Tall Black No 307 Keanu Rasmussen saw the floor and got a first international win under his belt.
“We came in here to get a job done, and that’s what we did. There’s some areas we needed to clean up. The offensive boards early on, and then looking after the ball are probably some areas we need to improve on. But you know, we came in, got the win and I guess that’s all that matters,” Rasmussen said.
The victory against the Philippines marks the third in a row, and the Tall Blacks first victory of the qualifiers after two close losses to Australia in Window 1. They will now head to Guam for the final game of Window 2 on Sunday, 8pm NZT.
