Philippines’ Terrence Romeo (middle) continues to dazzle in the 2015 Jones Cup. Photo from the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association
TAIPEI – Gilas Pilipinas, down to wafer-thin chances of winning the Jones Cup here, could be down to one pure point guard in Jason Castro when the Filipinos clash with the Wellington Saints of New Zealand at 1 p.m. Friday.
With Jimmy Alapag already down with a leg injury after just one game, Terrence Romeo, the darling of the tournament, has been listed as day-to-day after spraining his left ankle in a losing game against Asian champion Iran on Thursday afternoon.
Romeo landed awkwardly in a fastbreak play and limped out of the court at the end of the third period against the Iranians.
The ankle twist required the attention of the team trainer, who gave Romeo the go-signal to return only with a little under three minutes left in the contest.
Team Philippines’ fate doesn’t rest on its hands as even if the Filipinos sweep their remaining three contests, they need to hope for the Iranians to lose to Spartak Primorye of Russia for them to end up tied after the single round elimination.
In that case, Gilas could wind up winning the tiebreak since the Filipinos beat Russia, 85-71, and lost to the Iranians, 74-65.
With Romeo out, Gabe Norwood or even Matt Ganuelas-Rosser could be asked to do some point guard chores.