Gilas embarks on 10-game NZ jaunt

MANILA, Philippines - Gilas Pilipinas leaves home base for one last time this afternoon for a 10-game training in New Zealand marking the final stretch of its buildup for the 27th FIBA Asia Championship.

The Phl training pool plays six games in its Kiwi land tour where coach Chot Reyes hopes to whip up the team into its peak form in time for the Asian meet set Aug. 1-11 at the MOA Arena in Pasay and Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.

The Filipinos take on the Hawkes Bay Hawks Friday and Saturday, the NBL All Stars Sunday, the Wellington Saints on July 16, the Auckland Rangers on July 17 and the Tall Blacks (New Zealand national team) on the 18th.

A bonus to the six-game series is a five-day clinic under renowned coach Tab Baldwin.

Baldwin is the bench tactician who steered New Zealand to a semifinal finish in the 2002 world championship, Lebanon to its 2010 FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup title conquest and Jordan to its second-place finish in the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship in Wuhan, China.

On the third day of their New Zealand training, Reyes and his staff will name the Final 12 who will banner the country’s bid for a crack in the FIBA World Cup in Spain next year.

It looks easy to predict that the final Gilas composition will come from the 13 hopefuls going to New Zealand.

They are big men Marcus Douthit, Junmar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Beau Belga, Ranidel de Ocampo and Marc Pingris, guards Jayson Castro, LA Tenorio and Jimmy Alapag and wing men Gary David, Larry Fonacier, Jeff Chan and Gabe Norwood. They were the same “Lucky 13” that underwent an earlier boot camp in Lithuania.

 In the case of Douthit, De Ocampo, Tenorio, David, Fonacier, Chan and Norwood, they’ve been working hard in training since last year. They were part of the Gilas team that ruled the 2012 Jones Cup and later finished fourth in the fourth FIBA Asia Cup.

Other names in the 24-man pool Gilas submitted to FIBA Asia last month are Sonny Thoss, Greg Slaughter, Kelly Williams, Jared Dillinger, Ryan Reyes and cadet players Garvo Lanete, Matt Ganuelas, Kevin Alas, Jake Pascual, Ronald Pascual and RR Garcia.

Reyes expects highly competitive games in New Zealand since the Kiwi players are in shape, still playing in the ongoing NBL season.

“That’s the reason why we chose New Zealand,” said Reyes of their alternative trip to their botched Jones Cup campaign.

In Day Two of the Jones Cup in Taipei Sunday, the host team, starring naturalized player Quincy Davis, nailed a second straight win with an 89-84 decision over the United States.

Davis churned out another double-double game with 11 points and 11 rebounds while Lin Chih-chieh exploded for 30 points against the Americans led by Curtis Marshall with 24 points and Eric Hicks with 23 makers and 14 caroms.

South Korea dumped Taipei B, 81-60, to share early league lead with Taipei A.

Lebanon bounced back from a loss to Taipei B with a 79-72 win over Japan even as Egypt also broke into the win-column with an 89-65 rout of Jordan.

Over in Guangzhou, China claimed a second straight win in the Stankovic Continental Cup with a 73-62 whipping of Puerto Rico.