The game between Gilas Pilipinas and Qatar in the fourth window of the 2019 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers on Monday wasn't played in front of a home crowd.
This unusual scenario was one of the effects of the Gilas-Australia brawl back in July. When FIBA handed down the sanctions, the Philippines was instructed to play its next home game behind closed doors.
The no-crowd setup seemed to have affected Gilas in the first half. The home team allowed Qatar to have its way and trailed by double digits, obviously missing the fans' energy and cheers which they usually feed off of.
Fortunately, the Gilas players were able to get their bearings and turned the tables around in the second half en route to a 92-81 win over Qatar.
These were some of the reactions about the closed-door game:
Tim Lewis (Qatar head coach): The Philippines started the game flat, especially with an empty arena. Obviously you come here and expect the place to be packed. It's different. It had an effect on the Philippines for sure. You don't have that home crowd to drive you.
Yeng Guiao (Gilas coach): It had an effect on us. It's kind of surreal and it felt really weird - playing in your country, in your stadium with nobody cheering. That's why we just cheered ourselves from the bench. I told them, 'A lot of people are watching on TV and listening on the radio, so just visualize that.' It was weird but after a while we got used to it. Before (when the arena is packed), I could never hear the instructions I give the players, but tonight I could even hear the instructions from the other side.
Greg Slaughter (Gilas pool member): It was definitely different. It took a while before we found our rhythm but eventually we found the bottom of the hoop. It's our home court and we played good in the second half.
Marcio Lassiter (Gilas player): We missed the home crowd.
Scottie Thompson (Gilas player): We were trying to catch up, that's when we felt we needed the crowd. We had to adjust because it was quiet, like a tune-up game. But coach Yeng said we would get used to it as the game went on. The cheers from Allein Maliksi and Raymond Almazan helped, like 10,000 people were in the crowd.
Ryan Gregorio (SBP special assistant to the president): It felt really awkward. It's something I have never been a part of. And most of us don't really know how to respond to such a situation. And I was kidding everyone, in the first half it felt like a brain surgery wherein no one's allowed to speak. After the first half I just took it a bit to myself to start really having that energy. I stayed at the farthest end of the bench to put in the needed energy and that was the best thing that happened in the game. All of a sudden players responded.
Noel Zarate (arena barker): In the first half it felt really different. It felt like a practice game. When the Philippines was playing poorly and Qatar playing really well it was like, 'Am I forcing the issue too much?' But when the second half came, I said, 'Whatever, I'll just do what I do.' I had to make believe there was a crowd. It just felt different from what we're used to as an announcer.