Gilas Women shrug off first game loss, keep World Cup bid alive

The Gilas Pilipinas women’s team kept their world cup hopes alive after an opening game loss, redeeming themselves with a thrilling 21–19 win over host team Singapore in their second game at the FIBA 3×3 World Cup Qualifiers at the OCBC Square, Singapore Sports Hub, April 11.

Needing just a top-two finish in their bracket in Pool B to proceed for the next round of the qualifiers, this win came as a relief as the program had just freshly come off its peak with a silver medal in the recently concluded Asia Cup.

After Gilas seized a comfortable 10–3 lead in the first half of the game behind Kacey Dela Rosa’s scoring in the paint, Singapore launched a furious 15–8 rally behind outside shooting to claw back into contention.

Tied at 18-18, Dela Rosa continued her dominance and steadied Gilas’ ship with continued paint buckets as she scored the last three points of the game to end her outing with 11 points and seal the win.

Afril Bernardino and Mikka Cacho each added four points in the Philippines’ winning effort, while Singapore’s Jermaine Lim Jin Ying topscored with seven points for the home bets.

Earlier, the Filipinas fell short of a comeback bid against Brazil in a 13–16 defeat after trailing in the opening stages as the nationals were flat-footed and were unable to keep up with the Brazilians’ ball movement.

After facing an 0–5 deficit, Gilas slowly trimmed the deficit throughout the game behind Bernardino and Reynalyn Ferrer’s combined 10 points, but Brazilian Gabriela Guimaraes feasted inside the paint and produced 10 points to keep the Latin American team ahead.

The Philippines’ Pool B seeding will be determined by the winner of the Brazil (1-0) vs. Singapore (0-1) duel and will decide if the Philippines will continue playing on Sunday.