Gilas Pilipinas Basketball

Fil-German big man Christian Standhardinger leads four changes in the Gilas Pilipinas roster for their virtual must-win game against Iran in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers fifth window on Monday, December 3 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Standhardinger will replace Stanley Pringle, who scored 29 points in a gallant loss to Kazakhstan last Friday, in the naturalized player spot.

With their suspensions done, Jayson Castro William and Troy Rosario will rejoin the national squad too. Arwind Santos will make his Gilas debut.

The holdovers from the Kazakhstan match are Japeth Aguilar, Beau Belga, June Mar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter, Gabe Norwood, LA Tenorio, Scottie Thompson, and Matthew Wright.

Sitting out along with Pringle are Poy Erram, Alex Cabagnot, and Greg Slaughter.

Coming off a 92-88 setback at the hands of the Kazakhs, the entire team wants to bounce back. Personally, Standhardinger said he hopes to be in the best shape come Monday night.

“I am ready … It’s all about giving your best for the country. I hope that we can get the victory on Monday,” the San Miguel Beermen rookie said.

Standhardinger shared that he had been under the weather the past week, but he was able to return to do light practice such as running and shootaround.

Against a powerhouse team like Iran, Standhardinger hopes the squad will play better and avoid miscues from the previous game.

“It’s always disappointing to lose. I think we all know we had a good chance to win this game but unfortunately, we did not. We need to learn from this defeat and hopefully, bring together everything on Monday and win against a much better team,” he said.

Asked about not being able to suit up against Kazakhstan, Standhardinger mentioned he didn’t necessarily wish “to be exchanged” but as a natural competitor, he hated seeing his teammates lose without being able to provide help.

“Coach (Yeng Guiao) sees stuff like that better than I do. As a competitor and as an athlete, you always want to go in there and help your teammates specially in a close game,” he said.

Guiao remarked after the sorry loss to Kazakhstan that Gilas has to move on quickly to avoid too much negativity heading to their clash against Iran.

“Well, of course we are disapppinted but we still have one game on Monday. We can’t feel too negative about ourselves,” Guiao shared. “I think we can salvage the situation if we can play a good game against Iran and learn lessons from (the Kazkahstan) game.”

By Levi Verora, Jr.

Photos from fiba.basketball