eGilas Plipinas duplicated their feat from Sweden last year with another fourth-place finish at the eFIBA Season 3 World Finals at the SMX Convention Center in Clark, Pampanga.
The event, which is presented by Predator and sponsored by Smart, PLDT, Red Bull, and Nike with additional support from Senator Bong Go, started with so much promise for the Philippine team as they scored early wins against New Zealand and Turkiye. However, an NBA 2K server slowdown at the tail end of Day 1 hampered the momentum of eGilas as their match-up against Brazil had to be shelved for the next day.
The Philippine side composed of Kenneth Gutierrez, Lynard Clark Banzon, Julian Thomas Mallillin, Isaiah Alindada, and Prich Jayrald Diez, lost 58-56 and 52-47 to Brazil, which put them in a tough bind against USA in the semifinals.
eGilas had its moments against the undefeated Team USA but their offense was simply too hot to handle as the Americans won 67-46 and 73-60.
Hoping to still finish at the podium, the Filipino players gave it everything they got against Portugal in a best of three series for the bronze. It started well with eGilas winning Game 56-51 but the Portugese side adjusted their defense drastically.
Portugal took Game 2 with a commanding 57-42 score and then used that momentum to win Game 3 48-46.
USA went undefeated to win the tournament while Turkiye took home the silver.
Banzon, the point guard and main gunner of eGilas, was named part of the All Star Five.
“First of all, I would like to say that I’m proud of the group. The five players and the coaches really tried their best,” said Paul Laus, Team Manager of eGilas and President of the LausGroup of Companies. “Competing in the World Finals against the best teams in the world is not an easy task but we were able to duplicate our fourth-place finish from last year.”
“It’s a big honor for me and for the Laus Group to partner with the SBP and support these guys because you can all see that the potential is there,” he added. “We’ll regroup after this and map out our plans to have a better performance next season.”