Gilas announced 12-man lineup for Southeast Asian Games
Gilas Pilipinas announced its 12-man lineup for the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam from May 12 to 23, surprisingly without the service of Dwight Ramos and Robert Bolick.
Team manager Butch Antonio said Ramos still has commitments with his mother ballclub Toyama Grouses in the Japan B. League during the preparation for the Hanoi games while Bolick had to fly to the US to be with his ailing father.
"To those asking why Ramos, Bolick, & Aguilar are not in the SEA Games 12: Dwight still has obligations with his team in Japan, so he begged off, as did Robert who had to fly to the US to be with his ailing father; while Japeth’s calf injury is still not 100 percent healed," also said the national coach Chot Reyes in a tweet.
In the absence of their elite guards, the Gilas program tapped Kiefer Ravena, who is still in Japan but is set to end his debut season with Shiga over the weekend, together with his brother Thirdy,PBA players in June Mar Fajardo, Mo Tautuaa, Matthew Wright, Troy Rosario, Roger Pogoy, Kib Montalbo, Isaac Go and Kevin Alas as well as two cadets in Will Navarro and LeBron Lopez for the SEA Games.
For Kiefer, this will be his sixth consecutive time to be included in the lineup for the Southeast Asian version of the Games.
Kiefer has now won more SEA Games basketball gold medals than any other Filipino as he has won gold in the 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019 editions of the biennial Games and is looking forward to adding another one in the upcoming week.
Another name not included in the list is Japeth Aguilar, who suffered a calf injury during the PBA Governors’ Cup playoffs that forced him to miss games and limited his play for Ginebra during the finals against the Meralco Bolts.
"Rest and recover muna," said Antonio of Ginebra’s big man.
Tags: #Gilas, #basketball, #SEAGames, #Hanoi