Gilas stays with same 12-man lineup for home qualifier vs Guam

December 1 ------ GILAS Pilipinas decided not to tinker with its lineup and will parade the same personnel against Guam when the two sides meet again today in the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers.

In the wake of its 87-46 win over the same team in the first game of the opening window Friday at the University of Guam Calvo Field House, the national team opted to retain the 12-man roster for the 7:30 p.m. rematch at the Blue Eagle gym. Returning for Gilas are Chris Newsome, Scottie Thompson, RJ Abarrientos, CJ Perez, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, Carl Tamayo, June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, AJ Edu, Quentin Millora-Brown, and naturalized player Justin Brownlee.

That means the Gilas door remained shut for Juan Gomez de Liano, Jamie Malonzo, and Troy Rosario - the final three cuts made by coach Tim Cone for the away qualifier against Guam. Gilas is seeking to make it two-in-a-row against Guam to stay on top of Group A and the needed momentum going to their back-to-back games against world powers New Zealand and Australia in February and March by next year. Gilas battled Guam toe-to-toe in the opening period of their previous match as San Miguel Beer guard Jericho Cruz took charge for the home team before Gilas finally got into the rhythm and began to take control by the second quarter.

By the second half, it was an all-Gilas show as it clamped down on Guam’s offense and held it to just 17 points the rest of the way to end up with a 41-point blowout. Big man Jonathan Galloway admitted the Filipinos’ defense broke down Guam’s scoring ability, made worse by the absence of the team’s top scorer iEarnest Ross Jr. “We definitely got stagnant in the second half with our offense. I mean there’s so much room to grow on offense and defense, but definitely offensively I just feel like we have to more aggressive, got to move the ball better,” said the 6-foot-11 Galloway, who finished with eight points and eight rebounds. “The fourth quarter just got really ugly on us. So we just have to get it going offensively, get more guys involved,” he added. “I think on offense that’s where we have to figure it out on the next game.”

Source: spin.ph