PH 5 on hostile ground

Carrying the prayers of an entire nation, Gilas Pilipinas flies out for Chinese Taipei Monday morning to start its third window in the Fiba World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers where the Filipinos will be met by a hostile crowd come game time.

The Taiwanese will host the Filipinos in the 7 p.m. match on Friday at Taipei Heping Gym, needing no less than a win to stay in range of advancing to the second round against a Gilas side they haven’t beaten since the Fiba Asia Championship in Manila in 2012.

Like the Philippines, Taipei is enamored with basketball and its national team. Even though Overseas Filipino Workers are aplenty there, tickets for home games—especially against Filipinos—have reportedly been kept out from foreign buyers to assure full support for the hosts.

Team Philippines is already assured of advancing together with powerhouse Australia in Group B, and the fight has been narrowed down to Taipei and Japan for the third and last slot in their bracket.

Taiwanese superstar Huang Tsung-Han has already declared victory for the home team, quite a hard statement considering that Gilas has had the Taiwanese’s number for the last five years.

“This is my house,” the 23-year-old Huang told Fiba.com recently as tickets have been sold out. “In home games, the whole country will cheer for the players, and it will stimulate the players more. It will strengthen our desire to achieve victory.

“The tickets being sold out means we can’t lose,” Huang said.

Andray Blatche, Jayson Castro and reigning four-time Philippine Basketball Association Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo will again lead Gilas, which scored a 90-83 win over the Taiwanese November last year at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Kiefer Ravena, banned by the Fiba for doping until August next year, and the injured Kevin Alas are two players from that November team who won’t be around this time.

As always, coach Chot Reyes has stayed away from interviews leading to the match, which is also crucial for Gilas since win-loss records will be carried over to the next round.

“We just want to ask the country to keep on praying and supporting our team,” Reyes said in a television interview recently.

Taipei has also recalled some of its stars in the China Basketball Association for Friday’s game.