JUSTIN Brownlee is set make his Gilas Pilipinas debut even as Jordan Heading and Mason Amos also became part of the 12-man roster for the tie against Lebanon on Friday in the Fiba Basketball World Cup Asian qualifiers at the Philippine Arena.
Brownlee heads the lineup against the Cedars along with PBA players June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, CJ Perez, Jamie Malonzo, and Calvin Oftana, and Japan B.League imports Dwight Ramos, Bobby Ray Parks, Kiefer Ravena, and Thirdy Ravena.
READ: Why Almazan, Newsome are out of Gilas 12
Another B.League cager is set to make a comeback in Heading, who has been included by head coach Chot Reyes’ final roster for the 6 p.m. contest after nearly burning bridges with the national team following his move overseas.
Amos also made the cut following the unavailability of Kai Sotto and injury to Japeth Aguilar. The 6-7 teenager joins Fajardo and Brownlee as the only bigs in an undersized Gilas team for its penultimate game in the qualifiers.
Brownlee, the longtime import of Barangay Ginebra, will finally don a Gilas uniform after a naturalization process spurred by a clamor from Filipino fans.
He will be joined in the national squad by Ginebra coach Tim Cone, who is one of the assistants of Reyes with Gilas along with teammates Thompson and Malonzo.
With his inclusion in the Lebanon game, Ramos is one game shy of playing in all 12 Gilas qualifiers for the 2023 Fiba World Cup, which the country will co-host with Japan and Indonesia in August.
Heading returns to the national team to play in his first Fiba World Cup Asian qualifier after seeing action in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers and the Olympic qualifying tournament under former head coach Tab Baldwin.
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