Bennie Boatwright to bolster Gilas for FIBA WCQ Window 5

Bennie Boatwright will finally make his Gilas debut in Seremban, Malaysia later this month. PBA Images (file photo)

By Ivan Saldajeno

ANTIPOLO—It is official: Bennie Boatwright will be Gilas Pilipinas' naturalized player for the all-important fifth window of the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers.

Gilas head coach Tim Cone confirmed the development on Tuesday night, as he can now turn his attention to national team duties after Ginebra closed out San Miguel in the PBA Governors' Cup quarterfinals at the Ynares Center 1.

However, according to Cone, the Beermen's former import will not immediately make a pit stop of sorts in the Philippines and will fly directly to Kuala Lumpur from Jinjiang, China following his CBA duties with the Fujian Sturgeons.

"We're trying to get Bennie to come in earlier, but we can't at this point. China's still holding him. You know, in FIBA, you only have to be released three days before the actual first game," Cone said.

"He's going to meet us in Kuala Lumpur on the 23rd."

With Boatwright's arrival coming only four days before Gilas travels to the nearby city of Seremban to face Syria in the first game of Window 5, Cone is aware that he will face a gargantuan task of making the 6-foot-10 power forward learn at least some principles of his triangle offense-oriented system on a whim.

"That's tough because he hasn't been with us, hasn't had any time at all, so we're going to have to try to figure out a way to make him effective within the system and try to tweak it so we can get him effective. And that's always difficult to do, but he's a talented guy. He's going to land a lot of talent to the team, size, and perimeter shooting, so he's a welcome addition," Cone further said.

Gilas needs to hurdle Syria and also Iran in a rematch on Nov. 29 to solidify their hopes of advancing to the FIBA World Cup next year in Qatar.