Gilas 5.0 flies to Iran tomorrow for FIBA Asia Challenge

MANILA, Philippines – Gilas Pilipinas 5.0, the best Filipino basketball talents that can be gathered at this time, departs at Tuesday midnight for Tehran, Iran, where it competes in the 12-nation FIBA Asia Challenge on September 9-18.

Coach Josh Reyes and his troops led by SEABA Championship veterans Mac Belo, Kevin Ferrer and Mike Tolomia take the 11:45 p.m. Emirates flight to Tehran with a brief layover in Dubai, arriving in the Iranian capital two days ahead of the tournament opener on Friday.

Team Phl opens its campaign versus India at 8:45 p.m. Friday (around 1 a.m. Saturday in Manila) then tangles with Chinese Taipei at 4:15 p.m. Sunday (7:30 p.m. in Manila).

In the next phase of the preliminaries, Gilas Pilipinas faces off with China, Jordan and Kazakhstan.

 The Filipinos have to make the Top Four from their bracket (Groups A and B) to reach the knockout round.

Iran, Qatar and Iraq slug it out in Group C while Japan, South Korea and Thailand battle in Group D. The Top Four from this bracket join the Top Four from the other bracket in the crossover knockout quarterfinals.

Russel Escoto, Roger Pogoy, Ed Daquiaog, Von Pessumal, Arnold Van Opstal, Jaymar Perez, Alfonzo Gotladera, Carl Bryan Cruz and Chris Javier complete the Team Phl cast. Reserves are Almond Vosotros and Jonathan Grey.

In Wuhan in 2014, Gilas, which was then preparing for the World Cup in Spain, beat the host team for third place on crucial charities by Paul Lee.

Minus the PBA stars and with limited preparation now, the interim Gilas coach said what they could promise is to “just fight for every possession.”

The Philippines will be ranged against taller rival in each game in Tehran.

Against India, the Filipinos face skyscrapers who humbled the Chinese in the same Wuhan meet in 2014. India has since continued to improve, making the FIBA Asia knockout proper last year in Changsha.