DUBAI — Smart-Gilas Pilipinas put up a gallant stand in the absence of naturalization candidate Jamal Sampson but its effort fell short, losing to Al Jalaa of Syria, 76-90, at the start of the import-laced Dubai Invitational Friday here.

Egged on wildly by thousands of Filipino fans at the Al-Ahli Sports Complex, JV Casio, only on his second real basketball game since being sidelined by a contusion he sustained in an exhibition game with Alaska, carried most of the fight for the country as he unleashed a 23-point outburst.

But the absence of Sampson, a 6-foot-11 former NBA veteran who is being eyed by RP for naturalization, hastened the downfall of the Natrionals who struggled against the size and height of the Syrians, who played with three American reinforcements.

Filipino-American Marcio Lassiter, Mac Baracael, Japeth Aguilar, and Jason Ballesteros tried to plug the gaping hole by chipping in 11, 11, 10 and 10 points, respectively, but the void left by Sampson was too big to fill into.

Curiously, Sampson complained of pain on his knees and decided not to play only during the pre-game warm up.

“It’s always very difficult for us to play this game because all these teams, they have three Americans,” said RP’s Serbian coach Rajko Toroman.

“We played without Sampson and it shocked us in the beginning.”

“This competition, if we play without a big guy, we will not do too much,” he added.