Gilas holds alternative tune-up games for Asian tiff

By on 7:17 PM

Source: philstar.com

MANILA, Philippines - Smart Gilas Pilipinas hopes to step up its buildup for the FIBA Asia Championship with tune-up matches with Jordan here and a stint in China after it pulled out of the Doha meet due to the unavailability of the Talk n Text players.

“We really don’t have an alternative for Doha,” said Smart Gilas coach Rajko Toroman, referring to the four-team tournament that would have pitted the Nationals against the Lebanese, Syrians and the host Qataris.

“But we will try to play two games against Jordan in Manila and something in China,” he added.

The Doha tournament would have given Toroman the chance to play the PBA players with the rest of the team for the first time. But Smart Gilas decided to cancel the trip after TnT, where Gilas reinforcements Jimmy Alapag, Kelly Williams and Ranidel de Ocampo are three of the Texters’ key players, was dragged into a Game 7 by Petron in their PBA Governors Cup title clash.

Toroman said the team needs at least five tune-up games to blend well heading into the FIBA-Asia Championship slated Sept. 15-25 in Wuhan, China which stakes a lone berth in next year’s London Olympics.

Meralco’s Asi Taulava is the other PBA player reinforcing Smart Gilas after Air21’s Dondon Hontiveros quit.

The other members of the squad are naturalized Marcus Douthit, Chris Tiu, Mark Barroca, Japeth Aguilar, Marcio Lassiter, JV Casio, Mac Baracael, Chris Lutz, Dylan Ababou and Jason Ballesteros.

TnT’s Larry Fonacier and Ryan Reyes are also being considered to backstop the team after Hontiveros’ departure and with Tiu and Casio hounded by injuries.

Toroman said they plan to invite Jordan, who beat the Filipinos, 72-76, in the Jones Cup recently, to play here on Sept. 8-9.

The Nationals then hope to play the Chinese for a friendly game or two in time for the Wuhan meet.

Smart Gilas is bracketed with China in Group D along with United Arab Emirates, which the former routed, 95-60, also in the Jones Cup, and Bahrain.

“I keep on saying that we would be needing 8-10 games to blend well with the PBA players but now I will be more than happy to at least play five,” said Toroman.

Expected to hurdle UAE and Bahrain in the preliminaries, Smart Gilas could meet anyone among Japan, Jordan and Syria in the second round with the top four teams among six qualifiers advancing to the quarterfinals of the FIBA Asia Championship.