Gilas Pilipinas' hopes of reaching the upcoming Paris Games have come to an end following a 71-60 loss to Brazil in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga on Saturday.
Despite trailing 8-0 at the start, Philippines would go on to take the opening quarter 22-12 and would still hold a six-point lead at halftime.
Nonetheless, Brazil came out firing after the main break and -- fueled by a 18-0 run -- would emphatically win the third quarter 24-6 -- which would ultimately prove costly for Gilas as they were never able to make up the deficit despite winning the final period by one point.
While Philippines already surpassed all expectations by getting this far -- with coach Tim Cone admitting they had their flight tickets back to Philippines booked for Friday as they were not expecting to make it out of the group stage -- Saturday's loss was still a bitter pill to swallow.
"It's funny. We didn't expect to be here but then, when we got here, we expect to win," Cone said in his postgame news conference.
"It's very painful that we didn't, especially after having a halftime lead. The start of the third quarter was painful to watch. But there's a reason Brazil is the 12th-ranked team in the world and they proved it tonight."
After his previous heroics had already played a huge part in Gilas getting this far, Justin Brownlee did not have as high an output but still led the team with 15 points, while June Mar Fajardo (ten points, 11 rebounds) and Dwight Ramos (13 points) tried their best.
Ramos lamented the poor timing for Gilas to just be slightly off their best on a day when they really needed to be at their peak against quality opposition.
"It just takes one night (where) you don't show up and play your best and you lose," he said.
"That's how good the teams are here. Today, we just didn't play our best and Brazil beat us."
Having picked up a rib injury against Georgia on Thursday, Kai Sotto was a notable absentee for Gilas -- a significant blow after his strong showing in their stunning opening win over hosts Latvia.
"We don't want to make excuses but losing Kai was big for us, because it just took away our depth in the frontline and forced June Mar Fajardo to have to overplay minutes," Cone added.
"(The) bottom line is we just weren't good enough tonight and we've got to be better. We're trying to tell ourselves that almost isn't good enough. Almost getting there isn't good enough.
"We've got to find a way to get over the hump and get there. And tonight, we didn't do that."