Gilas Pilipinas eyes World Cup, Olympics in clash with Guam

Game on Friday
(Calvo Field House, Guam)
7 p.m. (5 p.m. Manila Time) – Guam vs Philippines

THE ROAD to the 2027 FIBA World Cup — and long-term, the 2028 Olympics — starts in this Guam stop.

And so this is foremost on the minds of Gilas Pilipinas as it takes on Guam on Friday at the Calvo Field House in the Asian side of the World Cup Qualifiers.

The 7 p.m. game (5 p.m. in Manila) touches off a two-way swing that brings the two protagonists to the Blue Eagle Gym, the Nationals’ new home venue, on Monday for the return leg.

“Our number 1 goal is to get to the Olympics. If we don’t win this window, then we don’t make the World Cup. If we don’t make the World Cup, we can’t make the Olympics,” Gilas coach Tim Cone said in emphasizing the value of the twin opening matches in Group A.

The Top 3 teams in the bracket will advance to the second round of the qualifiers and with reigning three-time FIBA Asia Cup titlist and world No. 6 Australia and 25^th ranked powerhouse New Zealand around, the No. 37 Philippines and No. 81 Guam are expected to battle it out for the third slot.

Gilas faces the Boomers and the Tall Blacks in succeeding windows next year.

“These two games (against Guam) are the most important games we play. And Guam knows that they’re the most important. They’re looking at New Zealand and Australia, and saying: we can’t beat them, but maybe we can beat the Philippines,” said Mr. Cone.

“Home court means something and that’s why this Friday game is really crucial to us. We’ve got to come with our best foot forward. We can’t take anything for granted with them being at home in front of their home crowd,” he added.

Mr. Cone added two new faces in big man Quentin Millora-Brown and guard RJ Abarrientos to Gilas’ regular crew of Justin Brownlee, Dwight Ramos, June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, AJ Edu, Carl Tamayo, Chris Newsome, Kevin Quiambao, Japeth Aguilar and CJay Perez for this mission.

“We had a really good camp. I was really impressed by the way the guys came,” he said.

“We took a little different approach this time. We really pushed much harder than we normally have done in the previous windows. We kind of wanted to play with a more aggressive style,” he added.

Expected to lead Guam are Fil-Guamanian Jericho Cruz, post-up specialist Tai Wesley, 6-foot-10 Jonathan Galloway and shooter Takumi Simon. — Olmin Leyba