By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas Boys will have to navigate through life without its top player anew as they open their campaign in the FIBA U18 Asia Cup against Indonesia on Monday, Sept. 2 at the Arena Complex in Amman, Jordan.
The youth team of head coach Josh Reyes just couldn’t catch a break as his U18 team will now have to play without its best player in Andy Gemao, who suffered a third metacarpal bone fracture on his hand in a tuneup game against Iran.
“It’s an unfortunate situation. We do everything in our power to keep our players healthy,” said Gilas Youth team manager Dean Castaño.
“But it’s a physical sport and these things happen. We wish Andy Gemao a quick and complete recovery and we’ll be here for him during this difficult time,” he added.
The bad break was reminiscent of the Nationals’ unfortunate campaign in the FIBA U17 World Cup last month in Turkey where Gilas missed the services of its top gun Kieffer Alas.
Like Gemao, Alas suffered a knee injury in a tuneup game against Canada just days before the start of the competition. Without the focal point of its offense, the Nationals suffered blow outs after blow outs on its way to a dead last finish in the tournament.
Gilas, however, is hopeful that its campaign in the continental showpiece would not suffer the same ill fate as it tries to open the tournament on a good note against the Indonesians, whom the Filipinos easily defeated, 87-64, to complete a sweep of the SEABA qualifier.
Gemao, however, played a huge part in the victory by finishing with 29 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.
The setback put much of the load on the shoulders of Joaqui Ludovice, who was also part of the U17 World Cup team, Wilhalm Cabonilas, who had 16 points and nine rebounds and John Earl Medina, who added 14 points built on four triples, in the first meeting against the young Timnas.
Also needing to step up are the rest of the team in Jericho Santos, Carl Manding, Marc Burgos, Drei Lorenzo, Charles Esteban, and Mark Esperanza along with new additions Louis Allen Perez and Johnkurl Figueroa.
Gilas needs to finish atop their pool in Group D, which also included New Zealand and Jordan, to get an outright spot to the quarterfinals where they get a day break before taking on the winners of the play-in round.
