Gilas leaves for Tehran, fights Iran Sept. 13

Gilas Pilipinas leaves for Tehran today to play Team Iran on Sept. 13 at the start of its grind in the second round of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers.

Head coach Yeng Guiao and team manager Butch Antonio lead a 25man delegation, including the pool in consideration for Gilas’ two games in the September FIBA window versus Iran then against Qatar at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Sept. 17.

Gilas figures in home-and-away matches against Iran, Qatar and Kazakhstan in Round 2 of the WC eliminator, carrying over its 4-2 winloss record from the first round.

The goal is to make the Top Three from Group F among Australia (51), Iran (5-1), the Philippines (4-2), Kazakhstan (3-3), Japan (2-4) and Qatar (2-4) for an automatic berth in the 2019 World Cup in China.

Guiao is happy with the pool at his disposal. He said the challenge is for him to get these PBA stars to blend and play good basketball together on their mere weeklong training.

Greg Slaughter, Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot, Scottie Thompson, Paul Lee and Gabe Norwood are expected to lead the Phl roster against Iran and against Qatar.

The Philippines won its most recent games versus both teams.

The Nationals, bannered by Andray Blatche, topped the Hamed Haddadiled Iran team, 87-73, in the second round of elimination phase in the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha.

Then minus Blatche in the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup, Team Phl was paced by Matthew Wright (with 25 points) and Carl Bryan Cruz (13 markers) in repulsing Qatar, 80-74.

After a losing start in the WC qualifier, Iran has reemerged as a top contender on the return of lead guns Haddadi and Nikkhah Bahrami.

They topped their initial grouping in the WC eliminator then figured in a gold-medal game versus China in the recent Jakarta Asiad Games.

Qatar has been struggling from the first round of the WC qualifiers to its Asian Games stint where it failed to make it past the group plays after dropping matches against Japan and Chinese Taipei.