After losing to Angola, Gilas' FIBA World Cup ambitions were all but dead.

Despite seizing complete control in the second half and extending their lead to 16 points in the fourth quarter, the Angolans overcame an early 11-point disadvantage. Gilas fought back and reduced the deficit to five, giving the approximately 12,000 home supporters some momentary hope.

However, Angola managed to hold on and is now equal for second position in Group A with Italy, who fell to the Dominican Republic earlier in the day with a record of 1-1. With 21 points, Jordan Clarkson led Gilas but only made 7 of 22 shots.

Gilas is not technically out of the running, but they will need a lot of things to go their way to move forward. To create a three-way tie at 1-2, the Philippines will need to defeat Italy on Tuesday and hope that the Dominican Republic defeats Angola.

There was optimism that the Gilas, who almost lost to the Dominican Republic two nights prior, may defeat Angola, which fell to Italy by 14 points. As soon as RR Pogoy and AJ Edu put Gilas ahead 28-17, it appeared as though it would happen.

The NBA center Bruno Fernando pushed his weight around, but Angola answered with an 11-0 run and went on to win.

"We got hammered on the boards," Gilas coach Chot Reyes said. "We gave up 20 offensive rebounds to the other team and in the end that was the story. We took care of the ball better tonight, but we just couldn't make shots. Eighteen percent from 3-points is just not gonna get it done.

Angola's shooters kept hitting critical 3-pointers despite an overall poor shooting performance by the team.

"They didn't shoot too well as well, they only shot 29% from the 3-point area but they made killer blows when it mattered," Reyes said.

Gerson Domingos' final shot, a corner triple just before the shot clock ran out, gave Angola a 76-68 lead and caused the crowd to lose their collective breath.

"We let one slip," said guard Kiefer Ravena, who entered the game at the beginning of the third quarter after being benched for the first half in an effort to limit Angola's quick 5-foot-6 point guard Childe Dundao. We gave ourselves a chance to come back, especially with Rhenz (Abando) coming off the bench and giving us a lot of energy, but we fell short. It's incredibly tough to compete when you're down seven or eight points with two minutes to play.