By Adrian Stewart Co

A year after their infamous scuffle with the Australian men’s national basketball team, the Philippine men’s national basketball team, Gilas Pilipinas, is set to play the Adelaide 36ers, an Australia-based squad, in a closed-door friendly today. The two sides are also expected to meet again on Sunday.
Gilas head coach Joseller ‘Yeng’ Guiao discussed the significance of the series.
“We wanted to erase some of the memories and, at the same time, renew our friendship and our goodwill with Australian basketball,” he explained.
Meanwhile, 36ers head coach Joey Wright echoed the sentiment.
“Some of the fans in Australia think that one incident defines what Filipino basketball is and it’s not,” he insisted. “We wanted to come back here and play and show people that it was just one incident.”
The two national teams clashed last year in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification round. With the Philippines down 79-48 in the third quarter, Gilas small forward Roger Pogoy reportedly committed a hard foul against Australian shooting guard Chris Goulding, which escalated in a full-on brawl and resulted in the suspension of four Australian players and nine Filipino players.
The game later ended prematurely with Australia winning 89-53.
Both sides are currently preparing for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, which is scheduled to begin at the end of the month in China./ASC, WDJ