{"id":483614,"date":"2026-02-16T12:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/483614\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T12:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:08:13","slug":"quentin-millora-brown-out-justine-baltazar-in-for-gilas-pilipinas-in-second-fiba-world-cup-asian-qualifiers-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/483614\/","title":{"rendered":"Quentin Millora-Brown out, Justine Baltazar in for Gilas Pilipinas in second FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers window"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Kai Sotto<\/a> officially ruled out for the home twin-bill against New Zealand and Australia<\/a>, Gilas Pilipinas will also be without Quentin Millora-Brown<\/a> for the second window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualifiers.<\/p>\n

Millora-Brown’s potential nonattendance was first released by SPIN.ph<\/a> — with the 25-year old still ‘unsigned’ for the upcoming window.<\/p>\n

Head coach Tim Cone confirmed the news to ESPN, saying: “QMB [Millora-Brown] has chosen not to join us this window, and yes, Justine Baltazar has joined the pool.”<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

2 Related<\/p>\n

His absence comes just months after he was cleared to suit up as a local following a lengthy eligibility process with the Samahan ng Basketbol ng Pilipinas.<\/p>\n

The former UP Fighting Maroons big man made an immediate impact during the first window, averaging 7.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on an efficient 70% shooting clip in back-to-back wins over Guam.<\/p>\n

Now classified as a local, Millora-Brown has also become eligible to play as an Asian import in overseas leagues. He is currently seeing action for the Chiba Jets in Japan’s B.League.<\/p>\n

Sources indicated that since securing his local status, SBP had earmarked the 6-foot-10 center as a key piece for multiple international tournaments.<\/p>\n

Now added to the Gilas Pilipinas roster, Justine Baltazar is in line to suit up for national team duties for the first time since the 2021 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.\u00a0FIBA<\/p>\n

There were even discussions about including him in the roster for the 2025 edition of the Southeast Asian Games, but negotiations with his camp did not materialize. Since then, there was already a concern of Millora-Brown joining national team duties.<\/p>\n

Baltazar’s inclusion marks a return stint with the national team.<\/p>\n

He last represented the country during the 2021 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament under then-head coach Tab Baldwin. He was also seen taking part in Gilas’ first practice session on Monday.<\/p>\n

With Converge FiberXers in the recently-concluded PBA Philippine Cup, the Pampanga native was in top form — averaging a double-double of 14.9 points and 14.2 rebounds per contest — numbers that could help stabilize Gilas’ frontline rotation in the absence of its key big men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Kai Sotto officially ruled out for the home twin-bill against New Zealand and Australia, Gilas Pilipinas will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-483614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}