Gilas Pilipinas Lineup for #SEABA2017 in Manila, Philippines

Naturalized player Andray Blatche and tested PBA warriors June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Calvin Abueva, Raymond Almazan, Allein Maliksi, Troy Rosario, Jayson Castro and Terrence Romeo are sure to crack the final Gilas 12 roster.

Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes bared he’s got in his mind the nine players to lead the Gilas Pilipinas cast to the 2017 SEABA Championship at the Smart Araneta Coliseum from May 12-18.

Reyes said the tough reckoning is choosing the last three players to complete the lineup.


“It’s easy to decide on the first nine,” said Reyes, obviously alluding to naturalized player Andray Blatche and tested PBA warriors June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Calvin Abueva, Raymond Almazan, Allein Maliksi, Troy Rosario, Jayson Castro and Terrence Romeo.

“The hard part is picking the players to complete the cast. It’s because all these players are dedicated,” Reyes pointed out.

The other Gilas hopefuls are LA Revilla, Bradwyn Guinto, Jonathan Grey, Matt Wright, Jio Jalalon, RR Pogoy, Ed Daquioag, Kevin Ferrer, Mike Tolomia, Carl Bryan Cruz, Von Pessumal, Alfonso Gotladera, Arnold Van Opstal, Norbert Torres and Almond Vosotros. Part of the pool but out on injuries are Mac Belo, Arthur dela Cruz and Russell Escoto.

Final evaluation is after the first two games of the 2017 PBA All-Star series—the first one last night at the Xavier University Gym here and tomorrow at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena.

To show their wares here last night were Romeo, Revilla, Tolomia, Pogoy, Wright, Ferrer, Cruz, Gotladera, Pessumal, Guinto and Fajardo

In Lucena, Wright, Guinto, Cruz, Ferrer, Tolomia, Opstal, Daquioag, Vosotros, Grey, Almazan, Torres and Maliksi don the Gilas jersey going up against Luzon stars Aguilar, Abueva, Castro, Alex Cabagnot, LA Tenorio, Marcio Lassiter, Stanley Pringle, Marc Pingris, Paul Lee, Mark Caguioa, Arwind Santos and Ranidel de Ocampo.

Reyes is to announce the Final 12 shortly after the Lucena game.

Originally, Castro, Jalalon, Aguilar, Rosario, Abueva, Revilla, Pogoy, Maliksi, Pessumal and Almazan are to make the Gilas team facing Visayan stars Fajardo, Romeo, Joe Devance, Jeff Chan, James Yap, Chris Ross, Chris Ellis, Aldrech Ramos, Dondon Hontiveros, Ronald Tubid, Asi Taulava and Jericho Cruz at the Hoopsdome in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu Sunday.

There may be changes in the lineups, though, as Reyes is planning to play his Final 12 in the Cebu game.

If ever, that will be the real first warm-up game of the Gilas team for the SEABA competition where the Philippines slugs it out with Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar and Vietnam in a fight for a lone spot to the FIBA Asia Cup in Beirut, Lebanon in August. (Nelson Beltran/Philstar.com)