FOR the first time in 64 years, the Philippines has won against a European team in men's basketball.

This was achieved early Thursday morning when Gilas Pilipinas scored an 89-80 upset win against host Latvia in Group A of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Riga, Latvia.

While Philippine team coach Tim Cone said he was "shocked" by the stunning victory, Latvia coach Luca Banchi attributed the setback to the host squad's failure to match the Filipinos' "sharp" performance throughout the game.

"I believe it was an excellent performance from the very beginning. They were very sharp, they imposed not only their physicality, but also their sharpness to find a solution on offense," the Latvian mentor said during the post-game interview, in describing the Filipinos' game-long effort. "Our opponent played a very good game, very solid."

Naturalized Filipino Justine Brownlee led the courageous effort by the Philippines versus Latvia after finishing with all-around numbers of 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists to help the No. 37 Philippines upset the world's no. 6 ranked squad.

Compounding the woes of Latvia's unexpected loss was the absence of guard Arthurs Zagars.

Banchi said the young Latvian playmaker got injured during his team's explosive 83-55 win over Georgia on Wednesday.

The talented Latvian guard managed to score eight points, six assists and three rebounds against Georgia.

"Unfortunately, the game [started] immediately bad and that created sort of a panic to the team," said the 58-year-old Banchi.

"We became rushed and when you see the numbers, you can understand."

Latvian forward Rodions Kurucs said that they failed to execute well from the beginning and trailed by as much as 26 points. He said their late-game rally also fell short.

"We didn't execute our offense and didn't do our job in defense, that was the initial focus. We let them play their game and they were responding," said Kurucs, who finished with 18 points and six rebounds.

"We didn't make our shots and we lost our energy in defense, we were lacking."

Cone, meanwhile, said that Latvia could have easily flipped the script, but the home team's inability to make shots made this win possible for the Philippines.

"It just turned out we got momentum and we just never really lost it," Cone said.

"There were a couple of stretches where we kind of lost our way a little bit. But it just seemed like when Latvia was about ready to make a huge run at us, they would miss an open three-point shot. It was just one of those nights for Latvia. They just weren't hitting shots tonight."

Latvia closed the group phase with an even 1-1 record and will advance in the semifinal round.