Wilcon Depot will bank on defense when it sees action in the Philippine Basketball Association 3×3 tournament on 3 and 4 July at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay.
Wilcon head coach Anton Altamirano said they are building a defensive mindset in a bid to surprise the professional league greatly dominated by TNT Tropang Giga, Cavitex, Meralco and San Miguel.
Altamirano said Platinum Karaoke standouts Yutien Andrada, Raphael Banal and Terrence Tumalip will be joining them to boost their defensive fortress together with Louie Vigil and Keith Datu, who played for J&T last year.-
“We’re still finding our identity but you can never go wrong with defense,” Altamirano said.
“It helps when you have chemistry with this group of guys but that’s also expected of the other teams. They also have familiarity. It will definitely help but it will all boil down to how we execute, defend and make plays to win.”
Also in attendance at the press conference are Wilcon Depot senior executive vice president and chief operating officer Rosemarie Bosch-Ong, PBA chairman Willie Marcial and PBA 3×3 tournament director Joey Guanio.
This conference will feature 11 teams with Wilcon Depot and Pioneer as guest teams.
Altamirano is optimistic the squad will be able to pull off surprises against powerhouses like defending champion TNT.
“TNT is the winningest team in the PBA 3×3 and the holdovers like Meralco and Cavitex are intact,” Altamirano said.
“But I think this coming season, we’re starting from scratch and anything can happen. It’s not always that TNT will always be the champion. We’ll never know and we just have to be ready on whichever team we will face.”
