Gilas Pilipinas completed a two-game sweep of their New Zealand exhibition series on Tuesday, blowing past the Franklin Bulls 94-66 in Pukekohe to follow up Saturday’s 90-61 rout of the Manawatu Jets. Two wins. Two comfortable margins. Zero Justin Brownlee minutes in either game.
It looks good on paper. It should not be mistaken for a statement.
As we noted after the Jets game, context is everything—and the context here does not change much just because a second club team went down to Gilas in lopsided fashion. The Franklin Bulls are a New Zealand National Basketball League side, not the Tall Blacks. Coach Tim Cone rested both Brownlee and Mike Phillips against the Bulls, yet Gilas still pulled away comfortably in the second half. RJ Abarrientos, Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo, AJ Edu, and Troy Rosario started and the quartet fired multiple threes early, setting the tone for a dominant performance that never really felt in doubt.
Good signs, certainly. A reliable barometer for what is coming Friday? Not quite.
Good Work for Gilas Locals Nonetheless
Cone spread the minutes across his 12-man lineup—the responsible, practical thing to do in an exhibition series designed to build cohesion, sharpen habits, and get the locals some high-pressure repetitions before the qualifiers arrive. That part worked. Quiambao, Tamayo, and Rosario all looked sharp. Edu is growing into his role. The guards are moving with purpose and confidence. For the players without Brownlee’s star power, these two games mattered—they were chances to establish rhythm, build trust in each other, and arrive at Friday’s qualifier against New Zealand with legs and confidence intact.
That value is real. The wins, in isolation, less so.
The Real Test Awaits
The Tall Blacks that Gilas faces on Friday night in a win-or-go-home qualifying environment are a different proposition from any club team on New Zealand’s domestic circuit. Their roster for the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers features NBL-proven professionals with size, athleticism, and international experience—guards like Shea Ili, Taine Murray, and Tai Webster, frontcourt bodies like Sam Mennenga and Sam Waardenburg who will test Gilas’s interior in ways the Jets and Bulls never could. They will be motivated, they will be at home, and they will have crowd support that club exhibition games in Pukekohe do not replicate.
And then comes Australia in Perth on Monday—undefeated in this qualifying campaign and stacked with talent that makes the New Zealand matchup look manageable by comparison.
Two warm-up wins over NZNBL clubs was the right way to prepare for this window. The preparation served its purpose. The wins gave the locals game time and rhythm that bench players rarely get when the qualifiers are live. That is not nothing—in fact, it is quite valuable for a team that will need contributions from beyond the Brownlee-anchored starting lineup when the real games arrive.
Just don’t confuse preparation for proof. The test that actually matters starts Friday.
