SEVILLE, Spain: The first World Cup win for the Philippines will still have to wait, and that is if Gilas Pilipinas can still muster enough fortitude to bounce back from yet another painful defeat.

With sloppy ball-handling in the final two periods, the Filipinos on Wednesday lost leads of as large as 14 points before finishing with a limp against Puerto Rico to fall, 77-73, and bow out of further contention in the 24-nation spectacle at the Centro Deportivo San Pablo in this laid-back city.

JJ Barea, the NBA veteran who is the third-smallest player on the court for both teams, beat the Philippines practically all by himself as the shorthanded Puerto Ricans stayed alive after rising to 1-3 overall.

Barea, , the 30-year-old who came into the game averaging 20 points in their first three outings, scored 30 points and had a key cluster of eight straight when the game truly hung in the balance as he ate the entire Philippine guard rotation alive .

The Filipinos also did not help their cause any in the second half, committing 15 of their total 19 turnovers in the final two periods aside from failing to hit the shots when they needed to.

“He practically took the team on his shoulders and said: No, we’re not going to lose,” Gilas coach Chot Reyes said when asked to comment on the 5-foot-11 Barea’s performance. “That’s the type of player we do not have.

“Maybe because of our inexperience in playing in tournaments like this one, we haven’t been able to develop someone like that,” he said.

The Philippines led for the last time at 70-67 after an Andray Blatche three-pointer with 3:35 left, but the Filipinos would score only three points after that, courtesy of Jimmy Alapag in the final 4.5 seconds when the outcome had already been decided.

And Barea, he just knocked the chops off of the Filipinos from there.

Left as the go-to-guy for Puerto Rico with injuries to another NBA veteran in Carlos Arroyo and shooter Angel Vasallo, Barea tied it all up for the final time at 70 with a triple off the outstretched hands of Gabe Norwood with 2:07 to go.

He then drove the lane in the next Puerto Rico offensive and slipped a layup past the 6-foot-6 Ranidel De Ocampo before making 3-of-4 free throws in a 20-second span that made it 75-70 going into the final 13.5 seconds.

Jason Castro, after a grave lapse in judgment in an 81-85 loss to World No. 3 Argentina on Monday, became gun shy in the clutch and finished with just four points.

Alapag, playing his last international tournament, was shadowed all game long and contributed six after shooting 15 fourth quarter points against the Argentines.

It was LA Tenorio who was having a great mano-a-mano duel with Barea, shooting 18 points. Blatche led the Filipinos with 23 points and 12 rebounds.

Next up for the Philippines is Senegal, which got a free ride to the KO stages because of the Gilas loss. The Senegalese, one of the tallest, most athletic sides in Group B, were tangling with the Argentines at press time.

The Philippines hasn’t won a World Cup game in 40 years, when a team led by the sweet-shooting William Adornado and Francis Arnaiz pulled out two one-point victories in classification phase play in 1974 – before both joined the PBA.

Adornado, who would go on to win three PBA MVP trophies, scored 20 points in a 101-100 win over Australia before Arnaiz, one of the most glamorous players ever to play in the PBA, shot 25 points in an 87-86 decision of the Central African Republic in the last Philippine game.

The Philippines finished just above the Africans in that year, where 14 teams saw action.