Injury-hit Alas out of U17 World Cup

MANILA, Philippines — And the mountain just got steeper. 

Facing giant odds against world superpowers, Gilas Pilipinas boys will now also have to deal with the loss of injury-hit ace player Kieffer Alas.

Alas suffered a knee injury ahead of Gilas’ debut today against Lithuania in the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup at the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Coach Josh Reyes told The STAR Alas is out for the duration of the tourney, though, the team is still waiting for the result of the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) test.

“Unfortunately, he is out of the World Cup with a knee injury,” said Reyes. 

Tapped to take over from Alas is Dominic Joaquin Arejola, joining  Kurt Nathan Velasquez, Elijah Mark Williams, Cletz David Amos, Edryn Morales, Joaquin Gabriel Ludovice, Irus Chua, Bonn Ervin Daja, Paul Cyron Diao, Jaime Lorenzo Gomez-De Liaño, Samuel Alegre and Noah Matteo Banal.  

Alas led Gilas to a semifinal finish in the FIBA U16 Asian Championship last year in Doha, Qatar ,and it serves as their ticket to a World Cup return since the golden era of triple towers Kai Sotto, AJ Edu and Carl Tamayo in 2019.

In the Asian tilt highlighted by a big Gilas quarterfinal win against Japan, the son of seasoned mentor Louie and brother of PBA star Kevin averaged 15.4 points and 8.6 rebounds for a FIBA Asia All-Star Five citation. 

Without him, the world No. 25 Philippines now stares at a more daunting task against world No. 7 Lithuania, fourth placer in the European championship, at 5:30 p.m.

Then, it gets even tougher from there on with Gilas clashing against world No. 2 Spain then No. 15 Puerto Rico in Group A. 

Lithuania, Puerto Rico and European champion Spain had podium finishes in the last three editions of the world youth championship with the latter winning silver behind world No. 1 USA in 2022 in Malaga.