Batang Gilas opens U-18 tiff vs Jordan

MANILA, Philippines – Batang Gilas seeks to jumpstart its ambitious campaign with a victory over Jordan Wednesday in the FIBA-Asia Under-18 Championship that started Tuesday at Al-Gharafa Gym in Doha, Qatar.

The Filipinos have already gotten the luck of the draw after it gained an outright spot in the second round but they will still gun for a win over the Jordanians in their 2 p.m. (Phl time) duel.

Batang Gilas will take on a sharp-shooting South Korea at 2 p.m. Thursday that will wrap up Group C matches.

The Phl, Jordan and South Korea were the first to make it to the next round since their bracket is the only among the four groups with only three teams while the rest have four nations each.

China, India, Malaysia and host Qatar are bracketed in Group A; Bahrain, Iran, Kazakhstan and Kuwait make up Group C; while Group D is composed of Hong Kong, Iraq, Japan and Chinese Taipei.

The Filipinos will be coached by Jamike Jarin, who along with Jose Go IV of Ateneo and Andres Paul Desiderio of State U, have flown from Dubai where they were part of the team that finished 15th of 16 teams in the FIBA U-17 World Championship just a few days back to join the Phl U-18 squad.

Norman Aaron Black of Ateneo, Dave Wilson Yu, Manuel Isidro Mosqueda III and Mark Anthony Dyke of National U, Richard Escoto and Brandrey Bienes of Far Eastern U, Joshua Andrei Caracut and Ranbill Tongco of San Beda, Leonard Santillan of University of the Visayas and Kobe Paras of LA Cathedral are the other members of the team.

Batang Gilas are looking to repeat its breakthrough silver medal finish in the FIBA-Asia U-16 Championship in Iran last year as it guns for one of the three slots staked in the 2015 FIBA U-19 World Championship in Greece.

Batang Gilas’ tallest player is the 6-7 Paras, son of former PBA rookie MVP Benjie Paras who is in the United Sates trying his luck in a US NCAA Division I school while the 6-5 Santillan is a top find from Cebu’s University of the Visayas.

The top three teams after the first round will advance to the second round composed of two brackets with six teams each.