Batang Gilas ready to battle in Fiba Asia Under 16

MANILA, Philippines — It won’t be easy making the Final Four of the FIBA Asia U16 Championships in Foshan, China, on April 2-8 but Batang Gilas coach Mike Oliver said yesterday he’s not putting pressure on the team to qualify for the FIBA U17 World Cup in Rosario and Santa Fe, Argentina, this June.

Only the top four of 13 teams playing in Foshan will go to Argentina and the road to qualify has become even tougher with the first-ever entry of Australia and New Zealand in the Asian zone.  The 13 teams are split into four groups – China, New Zealand and Hong Kong in Group A; Australia, the Philippines and Malaysia in Group B; Iran, Chinese-Taipei and Macau in Group C and South Korea, Japan, Lebanon and India in Group D.  It would’ve been a 16-team tournament but Kazakhstan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia begged off.

“We don’t want to give pressure on the boys so we’ll just take it one game at a time and see how far we can go,” said Oliver.  “The strengths of our team are speed and outside shooting but definitely, we’ll take Kai Sotto’s inside presence from time to time.”

The 7-1 Sotto heads the 12-man Batang Gilas cast.  Others in the roster are Raven Cortez, RC Calimag, Mac Guadana, Rence Padrigao, Terrence Fortea, Joshua Lazaro, King Balaga, Jorick Bautista, Shaun Chiu, Rafael Go and Yukien Andrada.  Of the 12, nine were on the Philippine squad that swept the SEABA U16 Championships here last year.  The newcomers are Andrada, Balaga and Bautista. 

Team manager Andrew Teh said despite the odds, nobody’s putting his head down.  “We always want to stay positive,” he said.  “It’s basketball.  Anything can happen.  Based on our analysis, we might be going up against South Korea in the quarterfinals so the key is to beat South Korea to make it to the Final Four.”  It’ll be a tall order for the Philippines as South Korea is the defending FIBA Asia U16 champion.  In 2015, South Korea took the crown in Jakarta with the Philippines finishing fifth.  Among the Batang Gilas players that year were SJ Belangel, Jonas Tibayan, Gian Mamuyac, Jason Credo and Sean Ildefonso.

In the tournament format, teams will play groupmates once in the opening eliminations.  Only the fourth placer in Group D will be struck out of contention after the first round.  The four group leaders automatically advance to the quarterfinals while the others battle in knockout cross-pairings in the second round.  If the Philippines winds up No. 2 in Group B, it will play No. 3 in Group C, likely to be Macau, in the second round with the winner to face Group D leader, likely to be South Korea, in the quarterfinals.  If the Philippines survives the quarterfinals, it will gain a ticket to the FIBA U17 World Cup in Argentina on June 30-July 8.  Batang Gilas’ first game is against Malaysia on April 2 then it meets Australia on April 4.

Only the four Asian zone qualifiers are undetermined among the 16 teams to play in Argentina.  Already qualified are the host country, US, Canada, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mali, Egypt, France, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia and Turkey.