Brownlee, Fajardo leads Gilas’ 28-man pool for Cambodia SEA Games

Three-time PBA Best Import awardee Justin Brownlee and six-time league Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo will headline the 28-man Gilas Pilipinas Men’s pool for the 32nd Southeast Asian Games set in Cambodia this upcoming May.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) released the list of players it submitted under the Entry By Name (EBN) category to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) as part of its initial preparations for the May 5-17 showcase.

Aside from Brownlee and Fajardo, other PBA players named to the pool are Brgy. Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, Jamie Malonzo, Christian Standhardinger, Stanley Pringle Jr, and Jeremiah Gray, San Miguel’s CJ Perez, Marcio Lassiter, and Chris Ross, TNT’s Roger Pogoy, Calvin Oftana, John Paul Erram, and Mikey Williams, Meralco’s Chris Newsome, Raymond Almazan, and Aaron Black, NLEX’s Kevin Alas and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, and NorthPort’s Arvin Tolentino.

Collegiate players named to the pool are Mason Amos, Kevin Quiambao, Jerom Lastimosa, Deschon Winston, Benjamin Phillips III and Michael Phillips, and Ariel John Edu.

Chot Reyes will call the shots for the team that will attempt to regain the basketball gold which the country surrendered during the previous staging of the biennial regional meet in Vietnam.

Of the group, only Fajardo and Pogoy were part of the squad that lost to Indonesia, 81-85, in the gold medal match.

Prior to the shock defeat, the Philippines had won 18 of the 20 men’s basketball gold medals and were riding a 52-game winning streak dating back to 1997. Malaysia bagged the gold in 1977 and 1989.

Gilas Pilipinas is now on a mission to regain lost glory.

“That moment is upon us, and we’re not leaving any stone unturned in our overall bid to regain basketball grloy in our region,” said SBP president Al Panlilio.

“What we’ve gone through after that fateful day in Hanoi, both the wins and the losses in the various tournaments that followed, are in effect, geared also toward bringing the SEA Games gold medal back to our shores,” he added.

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