Gilas wasting no time for SEA Games

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas gets the ball rolling for its Southeast Asian Games redemption tour with its initial once-a-week sessions next week.

The 28-man pool named by coach Chot Reyes gathers for the first time at the Meralco Gym tomorrow night and reconvenes every Monday thereafter to gear up for the May 5 to 17 SEAG in Cambodia.

According to Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) executive director Sonny Barrios, the eventual plan is to put the Gilas pool members in a camp once the PBA Governors’ Cup finals between Barangay Ginebra and TNT is done. The title series begins April 9 and will run through April 23 at the latest, giving Gilas more than a week to go through everything and develop chemistry.

“From what I understand, right after the series, they will have a closed-door camp na araw-araw, 24/7 magkakasama sila in preparation for the SEA Games,” Barrios said yesterday in the Power and Play program on Cignal.

PBA stalwarts June Mar Fajardo, Justin Brownlee, CJ Perez, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, Jamie Malonzo, Christian Standhardinger, Stanley Pringle, Jeremiah Gray, Roger Pogoy, Calvin Oftana, Poy Erram, Mikey Williams, Chris Newsome, Raymond Almazan, Aaron Black, Kevin Alas, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Arvin Tolentino lead the SEAG pool.

Meanwhile, the Gilas Pilipinas 3x3 women’s team carried the fight with a big 16-14 win over Iran to stay in contention in the 2023 FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup last night at the Singapore Sports Hub OCBC Square.

The Gilas women, who avenged their 19-10 loss to No. 1 China to wrap up Pool A campaign at 1-1, would need a loss by Iran versus China late last night to advance to the next stage. – reports from Olmin Leyba and John Bryan Ulanday