THE Philippine national women’s basketball team absorbed its second straight defeat in the ongoing Internatinal Basketball Federation (FIBA) Women’s Asia Cup in Jordan, losing to Australia, 120-56, in Group B play early on Wednesday morning (Manila time).
Gilas Pilipinas Women struggled at the start anew and could not recover from it.
The Opals opened the proceedings with an 11-0 blast until April Bernardino broke the Philippine silence with a jumper at the 7:05 mark of the first quarter.
Gilas stayed within striking distance of Australia for the rest of the opening frame, down by just 12 points, 32-20, heading into the second quarter.
In the second canto though, the Opals exerted further their might on both ends, outscoring Gilas, 32-13, to build a commanding 64-33 lead by the half time break.
From there, Australia just stayed the course, not allowing any significant headway for a Gilas rally to book its second win and fortify its push to take hold of the top spot in Group B of the preliminaries.
Forward Loren Nicholson led Australia with 21 points, followed by Keely Jane Froling with 19 points to go along with 13 boards.
Gilas, for its part, was paced by Janine Pontejos’ 13 points. Ms. Bernardino and Ria Nabalan each had eight points.
The nationals lost to China, 143-52, in their opener.
They wrap up their Group B assignments with a showdown with fellow winless team Chinese Taipei on Sept. 30 at 12 a.m. for the last spot in the crossover quarterfinals.
Whoever loses between the Philippines and Chinese Taipei will be sent down to battle against the last place team in Group A in the relegation game.
Playing in Group A are defending champion Japan, Korea, New Zealand and India.
Gilas Women matches are shown live over One Sports. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo