FIBA World Cup

Familiar foes: Gilas Pilipinas grouped with Italy, Angola anew in FIBA World Cup

Delfin Dioquino

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Familiar foes: Gilas Pilipinas grouped with Italy, Angola anew in FIBA World Cup

DEADLY DUO. Kai Sotto and Jordan Clarkson in action for Gilas Pilipinas.

FIBA

Gilas Pilipinas gets another crack at Europe's Italy and Africa's Angola after losing to both teams in the previous FIBA World Cup

MANILA, Philippines – Familiar faces await Gilas Pilipinas in the group stage of the FIBA World Cup.

The Philippines got bunched with Europe’s Italy, the Americas’ Dominican Republic, and Africa’s Angola in Group A following the World Cup draw at the Araneta Coliseum on Saturday, April 29.

Enjoying home court advantage, Gilas Pilipinas gets another crack at Italy and Angola after going up against the same two teams in the group stage of the 2019 World Cup in China.

The Philippines, meanwhile, tangled with Dominican Republic in the 2020 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Serbia.

Losing all three encounters, the Filipinos are out for redemption as they seek to advance to the second round of the global hoops showdown to be co-hosted by the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia starting on August 25.

“The good thing is that now, we have some clarity on who we’re playing and what kind of preparation is necessary to be at our best come August,” said Gilas Pilipinas head coach Chot Reyes.

“Obviously the next phase is to take a look at the teams we’re playing and to build the team and select the players.”

There is nowhere to go but up for the Philippines after its horrendous World Cup campaign in China where it finished dead last out of the 32 teams.

Gilas Pilipinas crashed out of contention after going winless in its group, losing to Italy by 46 points, getting destroyed by Serbia by 59 points, and bowing to Angola by 3 points in overtime.

Its woes continued in the classification stage, where the Philippines absorbed a 19-point beating to Tunisia and a 20-point rout at the hands of Iran as it wrapped up its campaign without a single win.

Gilas Pilipinas will go up against Dominican Republic on opening day at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan, marking its first World Cup game at home in 45 years, before it plays the rest of the group stage at the Araneta Coliseum.

Araneta Coliseum will host Group A and Group B, which is composed of Serbia, China, Puerto Rico, and South Sudan.

Team USA will play at the Mall of Asia Arena as part of Group C with Greece, New Zealand, and Jordan, while Group D – made up of Lithuania, Mexico, Montenegro, and Egypt – will also battle it out at the same venue.

Groups E and F will duke it out at the Okinawa Arena in Japan and Groups G and H will see action at the Indonesia Arena in Jakarta.

Here are the World Cup groupings:

– Rappler.com

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Delfin Dioquino

Delfin Dioquino dreamt of being a PBA player, but he did not have the skills to make it. So he pursued the next best thing to being an athlete – to write about them. He took up journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and joined Rappler as soon as he graduated in 2017.