SCHEDULE: Gilas Pilipinas at Fiba OQT in Riga, Latvia

Gilas Pilipinas takes its final shot to make it to the Paris Olympics slated for next month as it competes in the Fiba Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Riga.

There will be four OQTs played from July 2 to 8 across the nations of Latvia, where Gilas Pilipinas is competing, Puerto Rico, Greece and Spain.

Gilas is bracketed with Georgia and host Latvia in Group A while Brazil, Cameroon, and Montenegro make up Group B.

READ: Paris 2024 or LA 2028, Tim Cone wants Olympic stint for Gilas

The Philippines qualified for the Olympic qualifiers despite just racking up a sole win in the Fiba World Cup the country hosted last year. The outright Olympic berth from Asia went to Japan as the highest-ranked team from the continent.

Gilas Pilipinas group stage schedule at Fiba OQT (Philippine time)

Gilas Pilipinas first clashes with host Latvia, ranked sixth in the world missing its NBA star Kristaps Porzingis, and then Georgia, which has NBA players  Sandro Mamukelashvili and Goga Bitadze.

Another schedule will be based on the results of the group phase.

July 4, Thursday

• 12am – Latvia vs Philippines
• 8:30pm – Philippines vs Georgia

Full Fiba OQT Riga, Latvia group stage schedule

Full Fiba OQT Riga, Latvia group stage schedule

July 2, Tuesday

• 8:30pm – Brazil vs Montenegro

July 3, Wednesday

• 12am – Georgia vs Latvia
• 8:30pm – Montenegro vs Cameroon

July 4, Thursday

• 12am – Latvia vs Philippines
• 8:30pm – Philippines vs Georgia

July 5, Friday

• 12am – Cameroon vs Brazil

July 6, Saturday

• Semifinals

July 8, Monday

• Final

Gilas Pilipinas Final roster for the Fiba OQT

Gilas Pilipinas is down to 11 men when it competes in the Olympic qualifiers with coach Tim Cone’s trusty longtime point guard Scottie Thompson and young big man AJ Edu out due to injuries.

• Mason Amos
• Chris Newsome
• Calvin Oftana
• CJ Perez
• Dwight Ramos
• Justin Brownlee
• Carl Tamayo
• Kai Sotto
• June Mar Fajardo
• Japeth Aguilar
• Kevin Quiambao

Fiba OQT format

The format of the OQTs makes every game a must-win for Gilas Pilipinas with only the champion in each qualifier advancing to the Paris Olympics men’s basketball competition from July 27 to August 10.

There are six teams in each OQT. They will face each other in a single-round robin format with the top two of per group advancing to the knockout Final Phase.

In the semifinals, the first place for each group battles the second place from the other group with a berth in the Finals at stake.

The winners of each OQT will join the eight teams who have qualified for the Paris Olympics, namely host France, United States, Canada, Australia, South Sudan, Japan Serbia, and Germany.