Kieffer Alas out for Gilas boys in FIBA U17 World Cup due to knee injury

MANILA, Philippines -- And the mountain just got steeper. 

Already against the odds of facing world superpowers, Gilas Pilipinas boys will march on to duel without ace guard Kieffer Alas in the 2024 FIBA U17 World Cup at the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Ace guard Kieffer Alas suffered a knee injury in time for Gilas’ debut Saturday against Lithuania and will no longer play for the duration of the tourney, no less than head coach Josh Reyes confirmed to The STAR. 

The extent of the injury is yet to be determined but Alas has already gone MRI test in Istanbul. 

“Unfortunaley, he is out of the World Cup with a knee injury. The MRI result is still pending,” said Reyes. 

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

In that tourney highlighted by a big quarterfinal win against Japan to qualify in the world stage, the son of seasoned mentor Louie and brother of PBA star Kevin from NLEX 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, which also finished fourth in the European championship, at 5:30 p.m.

Then, it gets even tougher from there on with Gilas also clashing against World No. 2 Spain and and No. 15 Puerto Rico as its Group A assignments. 

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

Replacing Alas is Dominic Joaquin Arejola, with 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 completing the squad.

Other teams clashing in the youth World Cup are the mighty USA squad, which won all six editions, China, France and Guinea in Group B, host Turkey, Argentina, New Zealand and Italy in Group C as well as Australia, Canada, Egypt and Germany in Group D. 

No team will be eliminated in the pool phase as all 16 countries will barge in the knockout stage featuring a crossover format between top-ranked and bottom-placed teams from Groups A and B against C and D.