MANILA, Philippines—It may have ended in a loss, but Gilas Pilipinas’ roaring comeback against New Zealand was a source of pride for the Nationals’ star Justin Brownlee.

The Filipinos lost a 94-86 heartbreaker to the Tall Blacks in the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup, but they surely went down swinging after rallying from 18 points down largely behind Brownlee’s efforts.

READ: Tim Cone on Gilas’ 0-2 start: I don’t think we all saw that coming

But the Gilas Pilipinas naturalized forward deflected the credit of the Philippines’ comeback efforts to his teammates.

“I’m very proud of the guys,” said Brownlee on Friday morning (Manila time) after the loss that sent the Philippines to a 0-2 start in the continental meet.

Gilas Pilipinas’ Justin Brownlee during a game against New Zealand in the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup. –FIBA PHOTO

“A lot of teams probably would’ve given up in those situations. I think down 20 or almost 20 points or whatever it was. It’s just a point where we just, I guess, didn’t even worry about the score.”

Brownlee showed up to do Justin Brownlee things, finishing with 37 points, five rebounds, three assists and a steal to match.

READ: Gilas Pilipinas falls to New Zealand, drops to 0-2 in Fiba Asia Cup

The multi-titled PBA import also did it all with just four minutes of rest, but his exploits weren’t enough to stop the slide for Gilas Pilipinas

“We just tried to fight and claw our way back in and we got in,” Brownlee said.

“We got back in the game but a couple mental mistakes and a couple big plays from New Zealand made them hold their lead. You just have to give them a lot of credit.”

Helping Brownlee on offense were Dwight Ramos and June Mar Fajardo, who finished with 19 and 11 points, respectively.

For Gilas to advance to the next phase of the Asia Cup, it needs to beat Iraq on Saturday to avoid being dead last in Group D.