PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Gilas Pilipinas plunges into action against Malaysia in a bid to rebuild its shattered pride in the men’s basketball competition of the 32nd Southeast Asian Games.
Game time is at 2 p.m. (Manila time) with Gilas gunning for no less than the gold medal after bowing to Indonesia in the previous biennial meet in Hanoi last year.
Malaysia will be banking on promising 6-foot-5 center Maegan Mahadevan, who already has experience playing against Filipino players in the recent AsiaBasket.
He will share the front court with 6-foot-8 center Tian Yuan Kuek.
Also tipped to make an impact is Wong Yi Hou, a 6-foot-3 swingman who averaged 12.2 points per game during the FIBA Asia Cup Pre-Qualifiers two years ago.
But Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes is more conscious of how his team can perform as a unit.
The Filipinos had to do a lot of cramming and scrambling for available players who can join in their twice-a-day training camp at the Inspire Academy in Laguna.
Three players didn’t have much difficulty getting themselves back in tip-top shape
— Justin Brownlee and Christian Standhardinger of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Calvin Oftana of TNT Tropang Giga.
Brownlee is back for another tour of duty as a naturalized player after reinforcing Gilas in the sixth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers at the Philippine Arena a few months ago.
But this will be the first time that he will be playing in the biennial meet.
Standhardinger, on the other hand, is coming off his finest season and admitted that the short rest in between the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup finals and the restart of the Gilas training had somehow kept him in great shape for the SEA Games.
“It’s very, very important that we win that gold medal back,” Standhardinger said.
“I was able to refresh myself a little bit on how we run things because I played with that offense before so I kinda remembered a little bit. I’m right where I want to be and I’m in a better shape and now I just have to build on it and get ready.”
Although Oftana missed all the practices in Manila as he was placed under health and safety protocols, he was still able to rejoin the Gilas training camp to prepare for his first SEA Games stint.
Joining Brownlee, Standhardinger and Oftana in the squad are three star players from San Miguel Beer in CJ Perez, Chris Ross and Marcio Lassiter as well as Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser of NLEX, Chris Newsome of Meralco, Arvin Tolentino of NorthPort, and collegiate players Michael Phillips of De La Salle University, Mason Amos of Ateneo de Manila University and Jerom Lastimosa of Adamson University.
