AFTER weeks of practice, Gilas Pilipinas finally gets to see court action on Tuesday night when they face Estonia in a pocket tournament in Tallinn.
The match, part of the build-up of Gilas Pilipinas in the Fiba Basketball World Cup is set at 6 p.m. (11 p.m. Manila time).
See LOOK: Justin Brownlee joins Gilas Pilipinas in Estonia camp
It will be the first time that Gilas will play a competitive game since starting their training for the World Cup last June 7.
Scottie Thompson, June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Dwight Ramos, Japeth Aguilar, Jamie Malonzo, AJ Edu, Rhenz Abando, Kiefer Ravena, Thirdy Ravena, Poy Erram, and Chris Newsome left Manila for Estonia on June 22 for the training camp.
Justin Brownlee, meanwhile, joined the team from the US on Monday just in time for the Estonia game.
Gilas Pilipinas coach Chot Reyes tempered expectations since the team is still in the preliminary stage of their preparations for the Fiba Basketball World Cup.
Reyes though said the team was productive in their practices particularly at the Inspire Sports Academy where they logged a couple of days of training before heading to the Estonia capital.
“We come here in a little bit of game shape. We are very, very far yet from being competitive shape but we didn’t want to come here with nothing,” said Reyes in an interview posted by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas Facebook page.
“I thought we were able to put stuff conditioning-wise and even system-wise in that mini camp before we came here,” said Reyes.
Gilas is slated to play Finland on Wednesday, another vital part to the preparation of the national squad.
“I think we are going to learn a lot from these two games,” said Reyes.
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