Sotto, Ramos headline Gilas 12 as Abarrientos, Arana the final cuts
At A Glance
- The 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto is formally making his Gilas Pilipinas return after being named to the Final 12 alongside Dwight Ramos, Carl Tamayo and Kevin Quiambao.
The 7-foot-3 center Kai Sotto is formally making his Gilas Pilipinas return after being named to the Final 12 alongside Dwight Ramos, Carl Tamayo and Kevin Quiambao.
With the absence of Justin Brownlee, Gilas head coach Tim Cone is looking at Ramos to be the team’s ‘take-charge guy’ while both Tamayo and Quiambao are expected to get a bump in usage to take the bulk of minutes usually allotted for the naturalized player.
Forming a triple tower in the front court with Sotto are June Mar Fajardo and AJ Edu while Troy Rosario and Justin Baltazar complete the wing spots.
Scottie Thompson and CJ Perez, after missing the last window of the qualifiers, will be leading the charge at the backcourt together with Chris Newsome and Juan Gomez de Liaño, who had a breakout performance in the game against New Zealand in the first round.
Abarrientos, who played at the point last window due to the absence of Thompson, will not be part of the roster. The same goes for Arana, who was just recently added to the pool in the leadup to the qualifiers.
The Nationals are looking to pick up valuable victory against Jordan to improve its 2-4 record in the standings.