Gilas Pilipinas vs. Iceland: Score and Reaction for 2015 Toyota Four Nations Cup

The Philippines suffered an 86-76 loss to Iceland in its final game of the 2015 Toyota Four Nations Cup on Saturday at the Saku Suurhall Arena in Tallinn, Estonia. The Gilas Pilipinas finish the tournament without a win in three tries.

Hordur Vilhjalmsson led the way for the winning side with 19 points. Martin Hermansson added 15 points for Iceland, which finishes the event with a 2-1 record. Andray Blatche tallied 22 points and six rebounds in a losing effort.

Team	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
Iceland	22	21	16	27	86
Philippines	16	22	18	20	76

The Philippines national team leaves Estonia in much the same way it arrived: a work in progress.

Head coach Tab Baldwin knew his group faced an uphill battle coming into the event. Practice time has been limited as the team starts building toward next month's FIBA Asia Championship, and it left more questions than answers ahead of the warm-up tournament, as Rey Joble of InterAksyon.com noted.

"These games in Estonia might not be very pretty, but the big thing for me is we're making progress," Baldwin said. "I know what’s going to happen when these guys put on their uniforms, they want to stretch themselves out and play full steam ahead. We want to be efficient."

There were stretches where the Gilas Pilipinas played well, most notably winning the second half against the host nation Friday. They must still clean up a lot of simple mistakes, especially at the defensive end, in the weeks ahead, though.

Iceland jumped out ahead quickly in the finale. The Nordic side led by six after the first quarter after attacking the paint and getting a lot of easy looks around the rim. It's the same approach the Netherlands and Estonia used over the previous two games against the Philippines.

The Gilas Pilipinas trimmed the lead by one in the second, but the story remained much the same. Iceland made 14 of its 17 shot attempts (82 percent) from inside the arc in the opening half.

An offensive flurry led by Terrence Romeo late in the period kept the game close heading into halftime, though. Ariane Karlo Sacamos of Spin PH provided the details:

The Philippines carried that momentum into the second half and took the lead for a brief stretch. Iceland regained control late in the third quarter and pulled away in the fourth as it started to pour in some outside shots, which stretched the struggling Gilas Pilipinas defense.

Iceland finished the game 23 of 29 (79 percent) on two-point shots. Defending on the interior will clearly be one of the main points of focus as the Philippines returns to the practice floor over the next couple of weeks.

Carlo Pamintuan of Slam PH highlighted other areas in need of improvement:

At the very least, it's fair to say the Gilas Pilipinas trended in the right direction over the last six quarters of the tournament compared to the first six. Once they can get rid of the fundamental mistakes mentioned by Pamintaun, then the coaching staff can really get to work on the defense.

It's difficult to project how much progress they can make between now and the Asia Championship opener on Sept. 23. But playing in a tournament atmosphere against solid competition definitely gave the entire team an idea of how much work needs to get done.

Baldwin knew coming into the event his squad wouldn't be in top form. Now he better understands what he must do to get the team back to that level.