The Gilas Pilipinas 3×3 Men’s Team—bannered by PBA players Jerrick Ahanmisi, Ralph Cu, and Chris Koon, along with UAAP standout Sean Alter—will see the road get tougher as they see action in the main draw of the FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup.
Gilas Gets Date with Top Seed Mongolia
Gilas will get arguably its stiffest challenge right away in Mongolia, the tournament’s top seed. Mongolia will parade the quartet of Erdenebayar Sugar-Ochir, Bolor-Erdene Gantsolmon, Chinkhutag Munkh-Ulzii, and Nasanjargal Ganbaatar. A new generation of Mongolian 3×3 standouts, this quartet leans on Sugar-Ochir’s relentless activity, Ganbaatar’s interior presence, and Chinkhutag’s and Bolor-Erdene’s outside sniping.
Gilas Plays Eighth Seed Chinese Taipei
The road doesn’t get any easier in Gilas’ second game of the day, as the Filipinos will take on eighth-seeded Chinese Taipei, whose roster, like that of Mongolia, also blends interior strength and versatile wing play. Leading the way is 6-foot-7 Chen Zhao-Hao, who provides interior presence. With him are Fu Bo-Cheng and Chen Bo-Sheng, versatile, high-energy players who complement Hao’s inside play. Rounding out the quartet is Chang Zi-Yi, who provides explosive outside shooting.
Gilas Will Need to Be Better
The Filipinos entered the main draw by sweeping their two games in the qualifying draw, highlighted by a tense 17–15 win over reigning Southeast Asian Games 3×3 champion Thailand on Thursday night. That followed a rather shaky, hard-fought win over Maldives in the team’s debut on the same day.
Needless to say, Ahanmisi and company will need to be a lot better later today, as they will be taking on more formidable opposition. In particular, they will need to avoid unnecessary turnovers and improve their decision-making—two aspects that left plenty to be desired, particularly in Gilas’ nail-biter of a win against Thailand. In that game, Gilas nearly blew a commanding seven-point lead down the stretch as Ahanmisi and Alter missed rushed, ill-advised two-pointers.
Schedule
Gilas is set to face Mongolia in Pool A at 6:40 p.m., followed by Chinese Taipei at 8:30 p.m.
The top two teams in Pool A will advance to Sunday’s knockout quarterfinals, where they will meet the two best teams in Pool C, which is composed of Japan, South Korea, and host Singapore.
