Batang Gilas tired but raring to battle

MANILA, Philippines — Batang Gilas endured a 31 1/2 hour trip from Manila to arrive in Buenos Aires, Argentina, yesterday tired but raring to play Canada and New Zealand in tune-ups before engaging Croatia at the Newell’s Old Boys Arena in Rosario on June 30 to start its campaign at the fifth FIBA U17 World Cup.

Coach Mike Oliver brought 16 players to Argentina and will submit the final 12-man roster during the technical meeting of team managers the day before the opening of the tournament. “After ng tune-up games natin with Canada and New Zealand, we’ll decide,” said Oliver. 

The 16 players are 6-5 Yukien Andrada, 17, of San Beda, 5-11 King Balaga, 17, of FEU, 5-11 Jorick Bautista, 16, of FEU, 6-1 RC Calimag, 17, of La Salle Greenhills, 6-8 Shaun Chiu, 17 of Ateneo, 6-7 Raven Cortez, 15, of La Salle Zobel, 5-11 Terrence Fortea, 16, of NU, 6-2 Rafael Go, 17, of Chiang Kai Shek, 5-10 Mclaude Guadana, 17, of Lyceum, 6-4 Joshua Lazaro, 16, of San Beda, 5-11 Forthsky Padrigao, 16, of Ateneo, 7-1 Kai Sotto, 16, of Ateneo, 5-11 Migz Pascual, 16, of La Salle Zobel, 6-5 Bizmarck Lina, 17, of UST, 6-7 Carl Tamayo, 17, of NU and 5-9 Gerry Abadiano, 17, of NU.

“We had a long, tiring trip but the players’ spirits are very high, maybe because of the excitement of finally arriving in Argentina,” said Oliver. Team manager Andrew Teh skipped the trip to arrange Gilas’ travel to Taipei where the national squad will play Taiwan in the third window of the FIBA Asia/Pacific qualifying tournament for the 2019 FIBA World Cup on June 29. Taking Teh’s place is assistant manager Wilbert Loa.

From Manila, the delegation took a nine-hour flight to Dubai where it had a three-hour stopover then flew 14 hours to Rio de Janeiro for refuelling. The stopover in Rio was two hours. Then, it was a 3 1/2 hour flight from Rio to Buenos Aires. Batang Gilas will stay two nights in Buenos Aires then travel 3 1/2 hours by bus to Rosario where the Philippines is booked to play Croatia on June 30, France on July 1 and host Argentina on July 3. 

There are 16 teams, split into four groups of four each, in the fifth edition of the FIBA U17 World Cup. The Philippines is in Group D with Croatia, France and Argentina. Making up Group A are Australia, Puerto Rico, Turkey and the Dominican Republic. Group B is composed of Mali, China, USA and Serbia while Group C has Canada, New Zealand, Egypt and Montenegro.

No team will be eliminated after the round-robin group stage. All teams advance to the knockout round of 16 where the order of finish in the group stage will determine cross-pairings. For instance, the last-place team in Group D will play the first-place team in Group C in the round of 16. The eight survivors move up to the knockout quarterfinals on July 6. The semifinals will be on July 7. The final and the playoff for third place will be on July 8.