Gilas Pilipinas arrives in Belgrade for FIBA OQT

Gilas Pilipinas arrived in Belgrade, Serbia on Friday for the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

In a Twitter post, the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) shared three photos of the national team at the airport.

SBP said the team experienced a flight scare after an aborted take off, but they made it to Belgrade safe and sound.

Gilas had a layover in Istanbul before continuing their journey to Serbia.

After a scare caused by an aborted takeoff from Istanbul, Gilas Pilipinas has now safely landed in Belgrade, Serbia for the OQT. #ParaSaBayan #Puso pic.twitter.com/GwJ0EhH5Wj

— SBP (@officialSBPinc) June 25, 2021

The team will face the host country on June 30 and the Dominican Republic on July 1. The top two teams in the group will advance to the playoffs on July 3.

Gilas will bring the same team which competed in the last windows of the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers.

Kai Sotto and Dwight Ramos lead the 12-man lineup, which also consists of Angelo Kouame, SJ Belangel, Carl Tamayo, RJ Abarrientos, Isaac Go, Justine Baltazar, Geo Chiu, Jordan Heading, Will Navarro, and Mike Nieto.

Lebron Lopez, Javi Gomez De Liaño, and Jaydee Tungcab, who played with the team in the Clark bubble, did not make it to the Belgrade roster.

Gilas played a tune-up game with China to prepare for the OQT. The game ended with a 79-all stalemate.

—MGP, GMA News