The Philippines’ men’s basketball team are a step closer to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 after defeating hosts Lativa 89-80 in Riga during the first of their two games in Group A action of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT).

The Gilas Pilipinas will next face Georgia on Thursday (4 July) at 15:30 Eastern European Summer Time.

With Kai Sotto, 22, contributing 18 points and 8 rebounds, his Filipino team never trailed, leading by 16 at half-time.

They pushed their lead to as many as 26 in the third quarter, but Latvia refused to go away, clawing its way within 10 in the final seconds of play, before the Philippines held on for the win.

“It’s one game, it’s a big game. As we said in the huddle after the game, we can’t relax. We got a game again tomorrow. That’s what we’re going to focus on,” Sotto told Olympics.com afterward. “We’re going to take it one day at time and tomorrow’s Georgia.”

Justin Brownlee was the Philipppines’ leading scoring with 26 points. He also added 9 rebounds and 9 assists.

At the OQT, the Philippines, Latvia, and Georgia play each other once with the top two from the round-robin going through to the semi-finals, along with two out of Brazil, Cameroon, and Montenegro in Group B.

Only the final victors will secure a quota* for the Games in Paris. The Philippines’ last Olympic appearance came at Munich 1972.

“I think the basketball world doesn’t give the Philippines much respect and I think that’s our job to prove to the world that teams gotta respect us more,” said Sotto. “We put the work in.”

*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024. Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.