Gilas suffer fatigue

I could’ve done it longer but I can see the concentration was losing.

Tim Cone is doing a lot of balancing acts for Gilas Pilipinas.

Pressed for time and the pool members are still fulfilling their commitment with their respective mother teams in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup, the Gilas Pilipinas mentor is now banking on their familiarity with less than two months left before the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

“They know everything instinctively as it is. It’s just a matter of having Jayson’s (Castro) instinct the same with June Mar’s (Fajardo) instinct. Troy’s (Rosario) the same with Greg’s (Slaughter). We’ve got to come and bring them all together,” said Cone after the team’s third practice Monday night at the Meralco gym.

The Ginebra mentor had another complete attendance with all 15 players all present.

LA Tenorio, Scottie Thompson, Stanley Pringle, Art de la Cruz, Japeth Aguilar and Greg Slaughter of Ginebra, Christian Standhardinger, June Mar Fajardo, Chris Ross and Marcio Lassiter of San Miguel Beer, and Vic Manuel of Alaska all managed to show up despite playing heavy minutes on Sunday.

Cone admitted fatigue has caught up with these players and it somehow affected what he wanted to accomplish in practice.

“We tried to do four things today but we only did two. I could’ve done it longer but I can see the concentration was losing. I’m really trying to keep it on a level where guys would still be interested in coming and still get things done,” Cone said.

“I would’ve wanted to do more but I saw the concentration weighting a little bit they’re getting a little bored. I’m always going to be disappointed that we didn’t get things done in practice but again these guys picked up plays so quickly,” he added.

Surprisingly in attendance was Standhardinger, who played in Beermen’s 124-129 loss to Cone’s Gin Kings and was traded the following day to NorthPort for Mo Tautuaa.

Cone said he was happy with the kind of dedication and commitment that the Filipino-German forward shown to the national team.

The other players who attended the practice were Matthew Wright, RR Pogoy, Troy Rosario and Jayson Castro.