By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas preparations for the 32nd Southeast Asian Games seemed to have finally intensified with naturalized player Justin Brownlee suffering a nasty cut on his upper lip after the team’s training session on Friday, April 28.
Brownlee took to his Instagram and shared a photo of his busted lip after he was inadvertently elbowed during one of the team’s scrimmages.
A total of 13 players showed up at the Meralco Gym with Brownlee, Marcio Lassiter and Jeremiah Gray along with amateur standout Jerom Lastimosa finally attending the team’s practice sessions over the last two days.
Gilas actually had a 15-player turnout the day before with Brownlee, Lassiter and Lastimosa rejoining the team for the first time this week.
Also present during the training were the usual faces in Meralco’s Chris Newsome and Aaron Black, San Miguel’s CJ Perez and Chris Ross, Ginebra’s Christian Standhardinger, and NLEX’s Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Sean Anthony.
Ateneo’s Mason Amos and the La Salle brothers Ben and Michael Phillips completed the team.
Gray, meanwhile, attended for the first time during Friday’s practice although there were only 12 other players present with Perez and Amos missing from the 15-man crew that was in attendance the day before.
Still, it was an encouraging development for the Nationals whose training has been hampered by manpower issues in the past week. Jamie Malonzo, Mikey Williams and AJ Edu have already begged off while Scottie Thompson is unlikely to join with wife Jinky expected to give birth in May.
Japeth Aguilar and June Mar Fajardo have also been ruled out for the biennial meet as they are still recovering from respective knee injuries.
Looking to make up for lost time though, Gilas is also set for a week-long twice-a-day training at the Inspire Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna starting Sunday. The team will stay there in a closed-door setup in hopes of fast tracking the team’s development and chemistry before finally flying to Cambodia in the first week of May.
