RJ Abarrientos and Ange Kouame joined Quentin Millora-Brown as new additions to the Gilas Pilipinas pool of coach Tim Cone.
The Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas made the announcement on Tuesday as the pool was expanded to a total of 16 for the 2027 Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers, which start late next month. Gilas will be facing Guam twice in the first window of the first qualification phase.
Kai Sotto is also part of the pool, and could likely see action for the November window if he fully recovers from an ACL injury.
Cone has retained the 12 players he had during the Fiba Asia Cup in Saudi Arabia, namely naturalized player Justin Brownlee, Dwight Ramos, Kevin Quiambao, AJ Edu, June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, Chris Newsome, CJ Perez, Calvin Oftana, Japeth Aguilar, Jamie Malonzo and Carl Tamayo. Millora-Brown was confirmed by Cone to be available for his Gilas debut after his appeal to be a local player was approved by Fiba.
Kouame will be a second option as naturalized player in case Brownlee isn’t available, while Abarrientos was among those cut from the Asia Cup pool.
Gilas will have a longer preparation for the upcoming window after the PBA decided not to hold games in the Philippine Cup for the period of Nov. 17 to Dec. 4.