Gilas drawn with Korea

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas faces a familiar nemesis in South Korea right in group play in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers starting this year.

Ranked as the fourth and fifth best Asian teams in the world, the Philippines and SoKor have been drawn in Group A in the draw exercise in Bangalore, India over the weekend attended by former Gilas skipper Jimmy Alapag.

Southeast Asian nations Thailand and Indonesia were also bracketed in Group A of the FIBA Asia Cup which will be introducing the qualifiers for the first time in history.

Patterned after the recently concluded World Cup qualifiers in which all FIBA zones participated in a two-year, home-and-away format, the Asia Cup qualifiers fire off with the opening window in November.

The next windows will be in February and November of 2020 after which the top two from each group will advance to the 16-team Asia Cup.

Third placers from the six groups, meanwhile, enter a special quarterfinal tournament to fill the remaining four slots for the Asia Cup, formerly known as the FIBA Asia Championship.

The last edition of the Asia Cup in 2017 was a traditional weeklong tournament among already seeded teams held in Lebanon where newcomer Australia reigned supreme.

Gilas, on the other hand, wound up seventh after a stinging 86-118 loss to South Korea in the quarterfinals.

Other brackets have No. 3 China in Group B together with Japan, Chinese Taipei and Malaysia while top-ranked Australia leads Group C with New Zealand, Hong Kong and Guam.

Lebanon banners Group D with Iraq, Bahrain and India while Group E is composed of second-seeded Asian team Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

Jordan headlines the cast in Group E with Kazakhstan, Palestine and Sri Lanka.