The rejigged Philippine national team plays its first game at home front at the Smart Araneta Coliseum against Qatar Monday night, looking to bounce back from its 73-81 loss to Iran Thursday in Tehran.
Having dropped their last two matches from the first round of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, the Nationals are hard pressed to win versus the Qataris in their 7:30 p.m. if they're to stay on course for a return to the world joust in China next year.
The Philippine quintet dropped a 73-81 loss to Iran in Tehran but barely stayed at third place as fourth-running Team Kazakhstan also bowed to Japan, 70-85, over in Almaty.
Through the Sept. 13 window of the Asia/Pacific FIBAWC eliminator, Australia and Iran remain joint leaders in Group F with their identical 6-1 win-loss cards, followed by the Philippines (4-3), Kazakhstan and Japan at 3-4 and Qatar at 2-5.
But coach Yeng Guiao and his troops must get their act together now so as not to blow away the 4-2 win-loss mark produced by coach Chot Reyes and the initial Gilas pool in the first round of the qualifiers.
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"Coach Yeng emphasized how important the Qatar game is for us. We are practically treating it like a do-or-die game," said Ryan Gregorio, the special assistant to the SBP president who also serves as among the deputies of Guiao in the national team.
Japeth Aguilar and Matthew Wright, who served their one-game suspension from FIBA, are back on board to soup up the national team that faltered at the finish and dropped a sorry eight-point loss to Iran.
Stanley Pringle also joins the mix, taking over from Christian Standhardinger as the team's naturalized player against Qatar.
Completing the roster for this home game are team captain Gabe Norwood, Scottie Thompson, Alex Cabagnot, Marcio Lassiter, Paul Lee, Ian Sangalang, JP Erram, Beau Belga, and Asi Taulava.
Team Phl is 2-1 so far in home games, winning against Chinese Taipei and Japan, and yielding to Australia in their fight-marred game.
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Qatar, meanwhile, is winless in hostile ground. The Qataris beat the Iraqis, 77-66, on a neutral venue in Tehran on Feb. 22 before repeating with an 84-79 decision at home in Doha on July 2.
Against Australia Thursday, Qatar utilized for the first time returning national player Tanguy Alban Ngombo.
The 57th overall pick by the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Draft, the Qatari/Congolese top scored with 14 points that went with eight rebounds, two assists and one steal against three turnovers in 25 minutes of action.
It was a lopsided match where coach Andrej Lemanis' Boomers struggled with a mere 29-percent three-point shooting but struck hard underneath the basket and around the perimeter area.
Jesse Wagstaff scored 18 points to pace the Boomers who also drew double-digit outputs from Anthony Drmic, Daniel Johnson, Mitch McCarron and Nic Kay.
The Boomers outrebounded the Qataris, 46-32.(SB)
