Gilas cadets see hard start vs Lebanese

MANILA, Philippines -  Cadet players of Smart Gilas Pilipinas take their initial test as they face Al Mouttahed Tripoli tonight at the start of the 24th Dubai Invitational basketball tournament at Al Ahli Club in Dubai, UAE.

A Lebanese club competing in the Lebanese Basketball League and in the Arab Club Championship, Mouttahed features national players Rony Fahed and Roy Samaha, Lebanese-American Bassel Bawji and American reinforcements Marc Saylers and Eric Chatfields.

They could well pose as a tough challenge for the Smart Gilas side – composed of a young team that includes nine cadet players in Garvo Lanete, Greg Slaughter, RR Garcia, Ronald Pascual, Kevin Alas, Jake Pascual, Matt Ganuelas, Justin Melton and Isaac Holstein.

This batch is being honed up for the Southeast Asian Games set in Myanmar late in the year.

Smart Gilas takes on Mouttahed at 9 p.m., hopeful to get going in the eight-team competition featuring two other Lebanese club teams, two from the host country and one each from Jordan and Kazakhstan.

The Filipinos are up next against host club Al Ahli tomorrow then versus Al Riyadi Aramex of Jordan Sunday in Group B preliminaries.

Naturalized Filipino player Marcus Douthit and PBA players JayR Reyes, Ronjay Buenafe and KG Canaleta complete the Smart Gilas roster.

It is the first tournament in the year for the Filipino cagers, whose main goal is to make the best preparation possible for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship.

The Asian joust, serving as the regional qualifier for the 2014 FIBA World Cup, is set in August in Lebanon. FIBA Asia, however, may pull out the event from Lebanon because of the continued strife in the Middle East country. Iran and Jordan are two teams that have plead for the pullout, according to reports.

During the FIBA Asia meeting in Tokyo, Japan last year, Manila was named alternate host in case the situation in Lebanon remains volatile.