Gilas begins Asiad campaign vs Bahrain

GILAS Pilipinas kicks off its gold medal quest for the 19th Asian Games when it takes on unpredictable Bahrain in the opening day of the men's basketball competition today in Hangzhou, China.

Interim coach Tim Cone is sticking with the team's four recent replacements in Chris Ross, CJ Perez, Kevin Alas and Arvin Tolentino.

The four are taking the spots of original Gilas members Calvin Abueva, Terrence Romeo, Moala Tautuaa and Jason Perkins, who were not part of the 60-man and 37-man lists submitted to the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (Hagoc).

While the appeal has been rejected, Philippine Olympic Committee president Bambol Tolentino vowed to make the appeal for the inclusion of Abueva and Co. following his interview on former PBA commissioner Noli Eala's sports program «Power and Play» last Saturday.

Still, Cone has stuck thus far, with the four new replacements, along with Marcio Lassiter, who is taking the spot of sharpshooter Roger Pogoy (medical issues).

And the focus the past days has really been Bahrain, which Gilas will be facing at 1:30 p.m.

«Bahrain is someone we really should consider, they're a sleeper team right there,» said Cone in a recent interview.

«They've got a Spanish coach, they swept through the qualifiers, they beat Kazakhstan by 30 points, they beat Indonesia by 25, so they're a team to reckon with right now. We think they're the sleeper.»

Justin Brownlee, one of two naturalized players, leads Gilas gold medal quest.

The Filipinos are coming off an 86-81 win over Korean club Changwon LG Sakers late last week in their only tuneup match as part of their Asian Games preparations.

Gilas still has four other World Cup veterans led by June Mar Fajardo, Japeth Aguilar, Scottie Thompson and Perez.

Ot