Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player Justin Brownlee ranked his red-hot shooting in the second half "high up there" among the greatest performances he's ever played as a pro.
The 6-foot-4 Brownlee dropped 27 of his 33 points in the second, including back-to-back three-pointers inside the final 58 seconds to help Gilas complete its comeback from a 20-point deficit via its pulsating 77-76 win on Wednesday night.
The huge semifinal win against a shell-shocked Chinese side, sealed the Philippines' return to the gold medal round for the first time since the 1990 edition.
"Gotta say it's up there, playing here in China, against China, with a very hostile crowd, gotta be up there with one of the great shots," Brownlee told One Sports, shortly after putting up a clutch performance that silenced the Chinese supporters that came to cheer for the China national squad coached by Serbian Sasha Dordevic.
"It just feels surreal, feels good to be alive, in contention for the gold medal."
Despite being held down to six points in the first half on 2-of-5 shooting, Brownlee remembered what Gilas interim coach Tim Cone told the team during the pre-game talk.
"I don't know, just keep fighting, keep battling. Coach Tim told us before the game we need to do something special," he said. "It was special, special win for us, special game, special effort, special team."
The shorter Philippine side played with a lot of heart, out rebounding the much-taller China side, 44-36, including a 17-12 edge in offensive boards.
Brownlee said the Philippines' comeback win that happened right at China's home floor was a testament to the "pure heart" of the players.
"Purely heart, purely Filipino heart, puso,that was the main thing that got us back in this game," he said.
Gilas, which played three games in as many days, will be shooting for the gold come Friday when the national squad meets Jordan in a rematch.
Jordan hammered the Philippines, 87-62 during the final day of group play last Saturday.