GILAS' KIEFFER ALAS RULED OUT OF FIBA U17 WORLD CUP
MANILA, Philippines — The Gilas Pilipinas Youth team is set to wage war at the FIBA U17 World Cup in Turkey without its main gunner Kieffer Alas.
The 6-foot-2 De La Salle Zobel standout sustained a sprained knee in a tune-up game against Canada, sidelining him for the tournament slated from June 29 to July 7.
The Alas family confirmed this in a statement on Friday evening.
"Kieffer sprained his left knee during the tune-up game against Canada. Thus, with a heavy heart, Kieffer will miss the U17 FIBA World Cup. We praise God that his ACL remained intact and strong," wrote the family.
"Kieffer will continue to recover and strengthen his knee in order to be back stronger than ever. We deeply appreciate all the players, love and concern."
Champ Arejola will fill the spot of Alas who registered 15.6 points and 8.6 rebounds in Gilas' semifinals finish at last year's FIBA U16 Asian Championship, which keyed the country's appearance to this World Cup.
Alas, the younger brother of PBA star Kevin and veteran coach Louie, made it to the Mythical Team of the Asian Championship alongside MVP Oscar Goodman and Lachlan Crate of New Zealand, Henry Sewell of Australia, and Boyuan Zhang of China.
Slotted in Group A, Gilas faces Lithuania on Saturday and Spain on Sunday before closing out its group stage campaign against Puerto Rico on Tuesday.
The Philippines has to finish in the top two of the group to advance to the knockout stage.
Completing the Gilas Youth lineup for the tournament are Kurt Nathan Velasquez, Elijah Williams, Cletz Amos, Edryn Morales, Joaquin Ludovice, Irus Chua, Bonn Ervin Daja, Paul Cyron Diao, Jaime Gomez De Liano, Samuel Alegre, and Noah Banal.
2024-06-29T07:22:04Z dg43tfdfdgfd