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JAKARTA, Indonesia: The country’s title-retention bid in the
SoutheastAsian Basketball Association (SEABA) Club Championship gets
underway on Friday when RP-Harbour Centre faces Thailand at the
Britama Arena here.
The Nationals’ opening game—the first of
three consecutive on their schedule—is a reprisal of the Southeast
Asian Games gold-medal game last December.
In that match, the Philippines cruised past
Thailand, 94-53, to win the crown.
The Filipinos are gunning for a second straight
victory against the Thais dating back to the SEABA Clubs this time
last year.
The RP-Thailand game is set 4 p.m. (3 p.m.
Manila time).
Battling Thailand, the only team without foreign
reinforcement, in the opener may be what the doctors ordered for the
Filipinos who will want to test their own imports against a
relatively lighter roster.
That is reason enough for head coach Jorge
Gallent to instruct his boys to bring their A-game and start the
single-round, three-game tournament on the right foot.
“We’re just going to play hard [against
Thailand],” Gallent said. “We’re going to play them as if they
have two imports.”
Harbour Centre’s two imports—collegiate MVP
Sam Ekwe and late addition Mark LeBlanc, who both stand 6’8”
—are expected to be at the forefront of the Nationals’ attack.
Harbour Centre owner Mikee Romero and Philippine
Basketball League commissioner Chino Trinidad wished the team
success.
“I’m ready to do whatever it takes to
win,” LeBlanc, a University of Connecticut alumnus, said.
Playmakers extraordinaire Jason Castro and TY
Tang will lead the locals’ charge.
“We’ll put a premium on guard play,”
Gallent said. “We’ll basically do the things we’re used to
doing in the [PBL], which is to emphasize ball pressure. This means
we’re going to maximize the strengths of Jason and TY.”
With Castro and Tang expected to log in heavy
playing time, Boyet Bautista, a third playmaker, was cut from the
12-man team. Solomon Mercado, who suffered a groin injury in
practice, was the other player left off the lineup.
Joining the two imports, Castro and Tang are
Dylan Ababou, Chad Alonzo, Beau Belga, Jeff Chan, Jonathan
Fernandez, Jerwin Gaco, Gilbert Malabanan, and Al Vergara.
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