Waiting for Bennie

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas head coach Tim Cone is waiting for newly-naturalized Bennie Boatwright to arrive in Manila but his flight schedule depends on when he is released by Chinese Basketball Association team Fujian Sturgeons to play in the fifth FIBA World Cup Asia qualifying window against Syria on Nov. 27 and Iran on Nov. 29 in Seremban, Malaysia.

Fujian is on break until Dec. 5 when it returns to action against Shanxi. The Sturgeons defeated Sichuan, 82-74, last Tuesday before taking off for a month. Boatwright is averaging 11.3 points and 6.4 rebounds in eight games for Fujian. He had double-figure rebounds in his last two outings and scored a season-high 25 points against Shanghai.

“Bennie needs to be released from his team,” said Cone. “We’re hoping Bennie can come early and perhaps, run some triangle with Ginebra but that’s not sure yet.”  Cone added that Gilas will start practice on Nov. 21, the day after overseas players are expected to report. There are no plans to begin practice with local players before then. “We will wait until we are all together,” he said.  The PBA will cease Governor’s Cup hostilities after the quarterfinals and resume with the semifinals on Dec. 4.

No additions to the Gilas pool will be made. “We’re looking to have only 12 players since we’ll travel for our first practice,” Cone noted. “We have only six days of practice all together and the expense of bringing a whole pool of players to Kuala Lumpur would be cost-prohibitive.”

There are conflicting reports on Kai Sotto’s availability for the coming window but Cone is optimistic that he’ll be released by his Japanese B-Premier League team Altiri Chiba despite sitting out the last eight games to rest his knee. Sotto hasn’t played for Altiri since Oct. 9. Carl Tamayo recently suffered an ankle sprain in the Korean league and won’t play in the coming window.