WITH less than a month left to properly prepare for Guyana’s inaugural showing at the FIBA Centrobasket U-17 tournament, the Lugard Mohan-coached team will resume training today at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Team Manager Junior Hercules told Chronicle Sport that Mohan will be working with a shortlisted team of 14, while two players residing in the US will be joining the squad shortly.

Following today’s session, according to the GABF, training sessions will continue from July 1-10, after which the team will be encamped from July 14-24, prior to their departure for the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, July 25.

Guyana were placed in Group ‘A’ of the tournament and will open their campaign against the Bahamas on July 26, followed by a clash with Puerto Rico on Thursday July 27, and then close off their group-play against Mexico on July 28.

According to the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the competition system of the tournament consists of two phases.

In the Group phase, the eight participating teams (Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) will be divided into two equal groups.

Teams will play in a round-robin format for three days. The top two teams from each group will advance to the next phase, where the first-placed team of Group A will oppose the second-placed team in Group B and vice versa.

The winners of the semi-finals will advance to the ‘gold medal match’, while the losers will play for the bronze of the continental event.

The top three teams from the tournament will qualify for the FIBA U-18 Americas Championship 2018, to be played in St Catharines, Canada, June 11-17, 2018.

Guyana qualified for the 2017 FIBA Centrobasket U-17 championship by finishing behind the Bahamas at last year’s Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) U-16 tournament which was hosted at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.