The Gilas Pilipinas men’s national basketball team pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the international hoops scene after shocking world no. 6 Latvia, 89-80, during their opening game of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).
Despite playing in front of a hostile crowd packed mostly by Latvians at the Arena Riga in Latvia, the brave Filipinos rose to the occasion and embraced the bright lights to complete the major stunner, keeping their hopes alive of a last trip to the Paris Olympics.
From the get-go, Gilas immediately clinched the lead and kept their pace to protect their advantage until the final buzzer sounded.
From 16-point margin after the end of the first 10 minutes, the Filipinos perfectly executed their offensive game plan and ballooned their cushion to as much as 26 points.
Although Latvia was able to trim their deficit to just a single digit after a final scoring push in the fourth, Justin Brownlee took charge for Gilas and hit clutch buckets to prevent any collapse in the important OQT game.
Brownlee spearheaded the Gilas win with a near triple-double performance of 26 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists while Kai Sotto had an outstanding performance of 18 markers and seven boards.
However, the job is not yet done for Gilas as they will take on the higher-ranked Georgia in their second game of their OQT campaign.
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THINKED TV 
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