Twenty-four players are set to be part of Gilas Pilipinas’ pool for the final window of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
Five young guns were part of the pool, namely Mason Amos, Jerom Lastimosa, Schonny Winston, Kevin Quiambao, and Francis Lopez.
Amos was part of the Gilas Youth team during the 2022 FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship. The 6-foot-7 Ateneo commit averaged 21.2 points in the tournament.
Lastimosa, meanwhile, is a 5-foot-11 guard out of Adamson University who was the UAAP Season 85’s PSBankable Player of the Season.
Winston is a high-scoring guard and is a product of De La Salle University.
Quiambao of La Salle and free agent Lopez have been mainstays in the Gilas pool for the past two years.
(C) FIBA.basketball
Also called up are PBA players Justin Brownlee, Scottie Thompson, Jamie Malonzo, and Japeth Aguilar of Ginebra; June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez of San Miguel; Roger Pogoy and Calvin Oftana of TNT; Chris Newsome and Raymond Almazan of Meralco; and Arvin Tolentino of Northport.
Brownlee was recently naturalized and will also be joined by Angelo Kouame of Ateneo.
Kai Sotto of Adelaide, Kiefer Ravena of Shiga, Thirdy Ravena of San-En, Dwight Ramos of Hokkaido, Ray Parks of Nagoya, Carl Tamayo of Ryukyu, and Jordan Heading of Nagasaki are also part of the pool.
Photo from FIBA.basketball
Heading will make his Gilas return for the first time since the Asia Cup Qualifiers.
The Philippines (5-3, Group E) will host Lebanon (7-1) on February 24 and Jordan (4-4) on the 27th. Both games will be played at the Philippine Arena.
Practice will begin on Monday at the Meralco Gym.
