QMB, Abarrientos spice up old Gilas crew

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas gets ready to unleash Quentin Millora-Brown and RJ Abarrientos in the international front.

Six-foot-10 bruiser Millora-Brown, now classified as “local,” and guard Abarrientos, a long-time practice player, reinforce the old crew in gunning for a rousing start in the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers against Guam.

They join Justin Brownlee, June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Carl Tamayo, Kevin Quiambao, CJay Perez, Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, Dwight Ramos and AJ Edu in the back-to-back games on Nov. 28 in Guam and Dec. 1 at the Blue Eagle Gym.

“These are the12 guys we will work with,” said coach Tim Cone in announcing the Final 12 during the send-off press conference held with ArenaPlus Sportsbook yesterday.

“These guys are really going to help us in two really important positions – the backup five and the power forward position and the point guard position,” he added of QMB and Abarrientos.

Cut from the expanded pool were Troy Rosario, Jamie Malonzo and Juan Gomez de Liaño. Kai Sotto isn’t playing yet but will join his brothers in arms in this mission.