# 2014 Philippine FIBA Basketball World Cup team

The Philippines men's national basketball team played at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup held in Spain. The 24-team tournament began on August 30, and the winner automatically qualifies for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Philippines qualified for the World Cup by virtue of the silver medal won by their 2013 FIBA Asia Championship squad.
Team Philippines were eliminated on the preliminary round with a 1-4 standing, but almost all of their losses were close games and was won by a small margin. This was the first time in 40 years since the Philippine national squad made an appearance and won a game in the World Cup.

## Qualification

The Philippines qualified for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup through their finish in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship which was hosted at home. They secured their place in the world cup by winning 86–79 over South Korea in the semifinal despite failing to clinch the title losing 71–85 to Iran in the final.
* Qualified for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup
| Rank | Team | Record | FIBA World Rankings | FIBA World Rankings | FIBA World Rankings |
| Rank | Team | Record | Before | After | Change |
| | Iran | 9–0 | 20 | 20 | 0 |
| | Philippines | 7–2 | 45 | 34 | +11 |
| | South Korea | 7–2 | 33 | 31 | +2 |
| 4th | Chinese Taipei | 6–3 | 42 | 44 | −2 |
| 5th | China | 6–3 | 11 | 12 | −1 |
| 6th | Qatar | 5–3 | 36 | 42 | −6 |
| 7th | Jordan | 4–5 | 30 | 30 | 0 |
| 8th | Kazakhstan | 3–6 | 47 | 52 | −5 |
| 9th | Japan | 3–4 | 35 | 35 | 0 |
| 10th | Hong Kong | 1–6 | 71 | 69 | +2 |
| 11th | India | 2–6 | 58 | 61 | −3 |
| 12th | Bahrain | 2–6 | 75 | 73 | +2 |
| 13th | Saudi Arabia | 1–3 | 69 | 76 | −7 |
| 14th | Thailand | 1–4 | 85 | 79 | +6 |
| 15th | Malaysia | 0–4 | 69 | 71 | −2 |

## Exhibition games

On July 25, 2014, the Philippine national team left for the United States for a training camp in Miami. They had two tune up games in Miami, winning 95–74 over a Miami Pro-Am selection and 93–84 over the Elev8 Sports Institute team which included players from the NBA D-League in its lineup.
In Spain, the national team played against a selection team consisting of players from the Liga ACB. They secured a 89–59 win in that game.
The Philippines participated in the Antibes International Basketball Tournament which was held in Antibes, France. Their opener against France ended in a 68–75 defeat, and loss their two succeeding games against Australia (75–97) and Ukraine (64–114).
They returned to Spain to play against the Basque Country. They loss 75–66 in their tune up against the Spanish autonomous region. The Philippines had three more tune up games against three national teams; 74–83 loss to Angola, 74–65 win over Egypt, and a 79–86 defeat to the Dominican Republic. A planned game against Mexico was cancelled.

### Summary
#### Miami training camp

* 3 August
| Miami Pro-Am Selection | 74–95 | Philippines |
* Miami
* 3 August
| Elev8 Sports Institute | 84–93 | Philippines |
* Miami

#### Antibes International Basketball Tournament

* 15 August 20:30 (UTC+2)
* Report
| France | 75–68 | Philippines |
| Scoring by quarter: 22–20, 13–19, 17–16, 23–13 |||
| Pts: Batum 16 Rebs: Batum 11 Asts: Diot 6 | | Pts: Blatche, Lee 12 Rebs: Blatche 7 Asts: Blatche, Norwood, Tenorio 2 |
* Azur Arena, Antibes, France Referees: Luigi Lamonica (ITA), Fernando Rocha (POR), Milija Vojinovic (SRB)
* 16 August 18:00 (UTC+2)
* Report
| Philippines | 75–97 | Australia |
| Scoring by quarter: 17–20, 25–27, 21–26, 12–24 |||
| Pts: Blatche 20 Rebs: Blatche 10 Asts: Alapag, Tenorio 3 | | Pts: Baynes 15 Rebs: Motum 12 Asts: Exum 6 |
* Azur Arena, Antibes, France Referees: Joseph Bissang (FRA), David Chambon (FRA), Abdel Hamzaoui (FRA)
* 17 August 18:00 (UTC+2)
* Report
| Ukraine | 114–64 | Philippines |
| Scoring by quarter: 21–16, 40–19, 22–13, 31–16 |||
| Pts: Lypovyy 16 Rebs: Lypovyy 8 Asts: Mishula 9 | | Pts: de Ocampo 11 Rebs: Douthit 8 Asts: Norwood 3 |
* Azur Arena, Antibes, France Referees: Joseph Bissang (FRA), David Chambon (FRA), Abdel Hamzaoui (FRA)

#### Spain training camp

* 10 August
| Liga ACB Selection | 59–89 | Philippines |
| Scoring by quarter: 16–23, 15–27, 11–17, 8–22 |||
| Pts: Gomez 12 | | Pts: Blatche 18 |
* Vitoria-Gasteiz
* 19 August 20:30 (UTC+2)
| Basque Country | 75–66 | Philippines |
| Scoring by quarter: 23–12, 20–12, 14–15, 18–27 |||
| Pts: Cortaberria 14 Rebs: M.Uriz 7 Asts: Cortareberria 4 | | Pts: Blatche 19 Rebs: Pingris 9 Asts: Alapag 2 |
* Polideportivo Municipal J.A. Gasca, San Sebastián Referees: Antonio Sacristán, Rubén Sánchez, Paul Urbano
* 21 August
| Philippines | 74–83 | Angola |
| Scoring by quarter: 17–17, 17–26, 16–21, 24–19 |||
| Pts: Blatche 33 | | Pts: Cipriano 29 |
* San Sebastián
* 24 August
| Philippines | 74–65 | Egypt |
| Pts: Chan 20 | | |
* Palacio Multiusos, Guadalajara Attendance: 3,500+
* 26 August
| Philippines | 79–86 | Dominican Republic |
| Scoring by quarter: 21–21, 23–27, 9–9, 26–29 |||
| Pts: Norwood 17 | | Pts: Feldeine 15 |
* Palacio Multiusos, Guadalajara

## Roster

In January 2014, the Philippines reportedly want JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche to be naturalized as a Filipino for them to be able to represent the country in the upcoming World Cup. Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes confirmed the development. Antipolo representative Robbie Puno filed House Bills 3784 and 3783, the naturalization bills of JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche. On June 11, 2014, Blatche officially became a Filipino citizen with President Benigno Aquino III signing the relevant legislation. Under FIBA eligibility rules, Blatche became eligible to play for the national squad as a naturalized player with only one player designated as such only allowed to be a part of any national team.
Greg Slaughter, Jared Dillinger, Marcio Lassiter and Paul Lee were invited to join the training pool of the national squad and to be part of the 18-man pool, Lassiter and Slaughter expressed gratitude for the decision but declined the invitation because they think that the 12-man roster that played on the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship are the ones who are deserving to play because they worked hard and helped the team to advance to the World Cup. The 18-man squad was decreased to a 16-man squad but they later on added Jay Washington to the pool, to form a 17-man squad.
Larry Fonacier backed out of the training pool because of being injury-plagued, his two-year-old problem. The 17-man squad was decreased to 16 as Chot Reyes announced the 16-man squad.
On August 18, 2014, the final 12-man roster was announced.

## Uniform

* Supplier: Nike
* Main sponsor: Smart Communications
| Home | Away |

## Preliminary round

* Qualified for the final round
* Eliminated
| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Greece | 5 | 5 | 0 | 414 | 349 | +65 | 10 | Round of 16 |
| 2 | Croatia | 5 | 3 | 2 | 414 | 398 | +16 | 8 | Round of 16 |
| 3 | Argentina | 5 | 3 | 2 | 420 | 371 | +49 | 8 | Round of 16 |
| 4 | Senegal | 5 | 2 | 3 | 348 | 399 | −51 | 7 | Round of 16 |
| 5 | Puerto Rico | 5 | 1 | 4 | 388 | 446 | −58 | 6 | |
| 6 | Philippines | 5 | 1 | 4 | 383 | 404 | −21 | 6 | |
* 1 2 Head-to-head record: Croatia 1–0 Argentina
* 1 2 Head-to-head record: Puerto Rico 1–0 Philippines
All times are local to Spain, UTC+2.

### Croatia

* 30 August 2014 12:30
* Boxscore
| Croatia | 81–78 (OT) | Philippines |
| Scoring by quarter: 23–9, 14–22, 20–18, 14–22, Overtime: 10–7 |||
| Pts: Bogdanović 26 Rebs: Tomić 11 Asts: Tomić, Šarić 4 | | Pts: Blatche 28 Rebs: Blatche 12 Asts: Alapag 6 |
* Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo, Seville Attendance: 3,500 Referees: José Reyes (MEX), Mohammad Al-Amiri (KUW), Fernando Rocha (POR)

### Greece

* 31 August 2014 20:00
* Boxscore
| Philippines | 70–82 | Greece |
| Scoring by quarter: 10–20, 17–17, 18–21, 25–24 |||
| Pts: Blatche 21 Rebs: Blatche 14 Asts: Alapag 3 | | Pts: Printezis 25 Rebs: Bourousis 10 Asts: Papanikolaou 4 |
* Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo, Seville Attendance: 5,554 Referees: Luigi Lamonica (ITA), Mohammad Al-Amiri (KUW), Stephen Seibel (CAN)

### Argentina

* 1 September 2014 17:30
* Boxscore
| Argentina | 85–81 | Philippines |
| Scoring by quarter: 22–25, 21–13, 28–23, 14–20 |||
| Pts: Scola 19 Rebs: Mata 9 Asts: Scola, Campazzo 4 | | Pts: de Ocampo 18 Rebs: Blatche 15 Asts: Castro, Alapag 2 |
* Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo, Seville Attendance: 6,071 Referees: Ilija Belošević (SRB), Juan González (ESP), Carlos Julio (ANG)

### Puerto Rico

* 3 September 2014 13:30
* Boxscore
| Philippines | 73–77 | Puerto Rico |
| Scoring by quarter: 25–13, 19–26, 13–22, 16–16 |||
| Pts: Blatche 25 Rebs: Blatche 14 Asts: de Ocampo 3 | | Pts: Barea 30 Rebs: Franklin 9 Asts: Rivera 3 |
* Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo, Seville Attendance: 4,998 Referees: José Reyes (MEX), Juan González (ESP), Carlos Julio (ANG)

### Senegal

* 4 September 2014 14:00
* Boxscore
| Senegal | 79–81 (OT) | Philippines |
| Scoring by quarter: 19–13, 5–24, 20–12, 20–15, Overtime: 15–17 |||
| Pts: Faye 20 Rebs: Dieng 14 Asts: D'Almeida 13 | | Pts: Blatche, Alapag 18 Rebs: Blatche 14 Asts: Alapag 4 |
* Palacio Municipal de Deportes San Pablo, Seville Attendance: 5,132 Referees: Ilija Belošević (SRB), Fernando Rocha (POR), Carlos Julio (ANG)