Gilas Pilipinas will be hungry for a win when they meet Tunisia at 8 p.m. today at the start of the classification round of the FIBA World Cup Basketball 2019 at the Wakesong Sports Arena in Beijing.

The Filipinos are reeling from three straight losses they suffered in Group D, including a heartbreaking 84-81 overtime setback to Angola on Wednesday in Foshan.“Still disappointed, but at least we had a chance to win the game. It’s kind of frustrating because we can’t make our three-point shots,” said Gilas coach Yeng Guiao.“Still not enough for us to win and we had some bad breaks. I felt some bad calls were made on us, especially traveling calls,” said Guiao recalling their game with Angola.This time, Gilas will try to adjust their outside shooting against Tunisia, which lost a chance to advance to the second round and clinch an Olympic berth following a close 64-67 loss to Puerto Rico on a Gary Browne three-pointer with 5.1 seconds to play.

Tunisia, which managed to pull off one win after three games,  comes into the fight  loaded with experience. It will be led by Salah Mejri and Michael Roll.Tunisia, which was seeking qualification for next year’s Olympics in Tokyo with a victory against Puerto Rico, is now in Group N  with Iran, Angola and the Philippines.“We lost this game. We had a lot of chances in the last five minutes. The game was in our hands. We made mistakes and it happens. It is disappointing because we could have qualified for the Olympics,” said Tunisian coach Mario Palma.

Because of its triumph against Tunisia, Puerto Rico earned a trip to Wuhan for games with Serbia and Italy in Group J.Former PBA import Renaldo Balkman led Puerto Rico with 14 points and 9 rebounds.Gilas will be looking for another big game from Andray Blatche, who finished with a game-high 23 points.Following their win over the Philippines,  the Angolans  boosted their chances of making it to next year’s FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.The top-ranked Asian team after the classification stage will book a seat in the Olympics, joining Japan, which as host is automatically qualified.The Filipinos will need to win both against Iran and Tunisia to have a good chance at securing an Olympic berth.