GILAS Pilipinas has buckled down to work in its bid to regain the gold that matters most to this basketball-crazy country.
Led by Ginebra and TNT players, the nationals showed up for practice to toughen up for the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia last Monday night at the Meralco Gym in Pasig.
The Kings’ Christian Standhardinger, Jamie Malonzo, Japeth Aguilar, Jeremiah Gray, and naturalized forward Justin Brownlee bannered the attendees in the session that also had Roger Pogoy and Calvin Oftana from the Tropang Giga side.
Sixteen of the 28-man pool joined the scrimmage, including San Miguel Beer’s Marcio Lassiter, Kevin Alas and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser of NLEX, Meralco’s Chris Newsome and Aaron Black, and Arvin Tolentino of NorthPort.
Collegiate standouts Mason Amos and brothers Michael and Ben Phillips completed the Gilas players in practice.
Reigning MVP Scottie Thompson and Stanley Pringle of the Kings and TNT’s Mikey Williams were absent.
The Beermen’s June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, and Chris Ross, Tropag Giga Poy Erram, Raymond Almazan of the Bolts, AJ Edu, Schonny Winston, Kevin Quiambao, and Jerom Lastimosa also did not show up.
The troops of coach Chot Reyes failed in its golden mission in last year’s edition of the Games in Hanoi, ending a 52-game winning streak dating back to 1997.
Twenty-six of the players in the roster are new additions to the pool, with only Fajardo and Pogoy as holdovers from last year’s squad.
Reyes will also call the shots for the Filipino cagers in this year’s FIBA World Cup the country is co-hosting with Japan and Indonesia from August 25 to September 10.
