MANILA – Gilas Pilipinas 3×3 men’s basketball team will kick off their “road to Tokyo Olympics” journey when they compete in FIBA’s 3×3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament tonight at Graz, Austria.
San Miguel Beermen’s Moala Tautuaa and Jaymar Perez, and incoming Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) rookies Joshua Munzon of TerraFirma Dyip and Alvin Pasaol of Meralco Bolts will spearhead the squad and will be trained by Ronnie Magsanoc.
Rain or Shine Elasto Painters’ rookie forward Leonard Santillan joined the team as a reserve player while his fellow reserve player, Karl Dehesa, on the other hand, did not make it to the trip for failing to complete the required quarantine protocols.
Tautuaa and Perez were part of the Gilas team that won a gold medal in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games 3×3 basketball, while Munzon, Pasaol, and Santillan previously belong to the Chooks-To-Go 3×3 basketball team.
Currently, at the 20th spot, the national men’s 3×3 team is bracketed in Group C in the Tokyo Olympics qualifier with Slovenia, France, Qatar, and the Dominican Republic.
The squad will first tangle with Qatar at 7:55 p.m. tonight, followed by Slovenia at 9:35 p.m. They will plunge back to action on Friday against Dominican Republic (5:50 p.m.) and France (7:55 p.m.).
Only the top two teams of each of the four groups will move on to the knockout stage, where the winner of the semis and third-place games will book a slot for the Summer Games.
Despite the challenges along the way, Magsanoc is optimistic that his team has a slot of becoming the first Philippine basketball squad to clinch a berth in the Olympics in 49 years.
“To be honest, it will be hard, but we’re putting our trust in everyone,” he said.
“The mere fact that we’re given the chance to be here and train together, there’s a chance. I can’t promise anything, but we’ll only do our best,” added the Bolts assistant coach./PN
