PAN - Vecchio omits 12 players from Panama squad

PANAMA CITY (Centrobasket) - Panama coach Guillermo Vecchio has trimmed 12 players from his 29-man squad for next month's Centrobasket.

The Argentinian coach has released Fabio Gomez, Orlando Olmedo, Kevin Daly, Gilberto Watson, Reyhavick Degracia, Alejandro Cajar, Luis Boza, Amir Alvarado, Abdul Herrera, Eduardo Isaac, Danubio Benneth and Tremaine Wingfield from his party ahead of the tournament which Panama are hosting.

"We've excluded players who did not attend the training sessions and some others who came but I felt could not be in the squad," Vecchio said.

That has left 17 players in Vecchio's squad, although he is still waiting for four of those - Danilo Pinnock, Ruben Douglas, Eduardo Cota and Ruben Garces - to join up with the group.
Vecchio is also waiting for Leroy Jackson to confirm whether he is available to play or not, and has warned the player that he will be excluded if he does not provide an answer soon.

Centrobasket, which is the first challenge for Panama ahead of this summer's FIBA World Championship, will provide seven berths to the Centro American and

Caribbean Games in Colombia, three spots in next year's Panamerican Sport Games in Rio de Janeiro and four places to the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship.

Panama squad: Jair Peralta, Eduardo Cota, Abdiel Mendieta, Joel Munoz, Michael Hicks, Danilo Pinnock, Ruben Douglas, Max Gomez, Mauricio Watson, Jamal Levy, Dionisio Gomez, Antonio García, Daniel King, Jaime Lloreda, Enrique Hiue, Ruben Garces, Eric Cardenas.

PA Sport