Thirdy Ravena, Ray Parks make Gilas return for Fiba Asia Cup

Gilas Pilipinas’ Thirdy Ravena and Dwight Ramos. Photo by Fiba

MANILA, Philippines—Thirdy Ravena, Bobby Ray Parks Jr., and Poy Erram are returning for duty for Gilas Pilipinas in the 2022 Fiba Asia Cup from July 12 to 24 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) unveiled the roster on Saturday with the three additional players reinforcing the young national squad led by Dwight Ramos and Kiefer Ravena.

Completing the 12-man roster are Carl Tamayo, SJ Belangel, RJ Abarrientos, William Navarro, Francis Lopez, Geo Chiu, and Kevin Quiambao, who are slated against New Zealand, Lebanon, and India in Group D.

Thirdy makes his Gilas return after missing the third window of the Fiba World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers.

The younger Ravena, who plays import for San-En in Japan B.League, averaged 19 points in two games in the second window.

Parks is donning the national team jersey for the first time in five years as he last played for the country in the 29th Southeast Asian Games last 2017. He averaged 10.6 points per game and shot 38.7 percent from deep for Nagoya in the 2021-22 B.League season.

Gilas also called up big man Erram, who normed 11.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in TNT’s nine games in the PBA Philippine Cup.

The Philippines missed the presence of naturalized center Ange Kouame in the third window due to a partial ACL tear, forcing the squad to play with 11 men against New Zealand and only had 10 players in its bounce-back win over India last week with Dave Ildefonso sitting out due to a knee injury.

NCAA rookie MVP Rhenz Abando didn’t make it to the cut for the Asia Cup after playing two games in the third window.

Chot Reyes is also returning as head coach with Nenad Vucinic, Jong Uichico, and Sandro Soriano part of his coaching staff for the tournament.