Kib Montalbo and Tzaddy Rangel will be playing for Gilas Pilipinas for the first time in their young careers on Friday.
As of Thursday morning, the two are part of Gilas’ final 12 for their game against India in the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers on Friday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas can still make changes to its lineup until 6:00PM today — exactly 24 hours before the game’s tip-off.
Both Montalbo and Rangel will be donning the national team jersey for the first time at any level.
Montalbo, 26, is a 6-foot two-way guard who plays for TNT while Rangel, 25, is a 6-foot-7 big man who was drafted by NLEX in the 2021 PBA Gilas draft.
Besides Montalbo, two other TNT players were called up by Chot Reyes in big men Troy Rosario and Poy Erram.
Tropang Giga players out for this game are Roger Pogoy, Kelly Williams, and Gab Banal. Also registered was Robert Bolick of NorthPort.
Completing the Gilas XII are Angelo Kouame of Ateneo, San-En’s Thirdy Ravena, Toyama’s Dwight Ramos, free agent Juan Gomez de Liano, Lebron Lopez of Overtime Elite; and Gilas draftees William Navarro of Northport, and Jaydee Tungcab of TNT.
Of course, India will still field the only 12 players they brought in the Big Dome bubble, namely Amritpal Singh of Punjab Police, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi of ONGC, Muin Bek Hafeez of Indian Bank, Princepal Singh of New Zealand, Pranav Prince of NBA Academy, Aravind Annadurai of Income Tax, Manoj Belur Manjunatha of Karnataka, Palpreet Singh Brar of Indian Railways, Rajeev Kumar of SSCB, Arvind Kumar Muthu Krishnan of Tanil Nadu, Prashant Singh Rawat of Uttarakhand, and Sahaij Pratap Singh Sekhon of Chandigarh.
The last time India and the Philippines met in a FIBA-sanctioned tournament, it was the former who took a 91-83 victory in the Challenge Cup.
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All Group A games of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers will stream live on GigaPlay. Download it now on Android or IOS.
The second game of each playdate is also livestreamed on SMART Sports.
