At A Glance
- The Gilas Pilipinas girls team arrived in Shenzhen, China on Saturday, June 22 armed and ready to vie for promotion in the FIBA U18 Women's Asia Cup Division B slated on Monday, June 24.
The Gilas Pilipinas girls team arrived in Shenzhen, China on Saturday, June 22 armed and ready to vie for promotion in the FIBA U18 Women’s Asia Cup Division B slated on Monday, June 24.

The Gilas Girls, which secured a ticket to the competition following a dominant three-game sweep in the SEABA qualifiers, aimed to acclimatize themselves this weekend before plunging back into action in the group phase of the tournament.
Coached by Julie Amos and accompanied by program director Pat Aquino, the Filipinas are looking to not only best their third place finish in the last edition but to finally claim the long-coveted promotion.
The Filipinas, ranked No. 49 in the world, open their bid against No. 96 Maldives on Monday before taking on No.86 Lebanon the next day. They, then, wrap up their group stage schedule against No.51 Syria on Wednesday, June 26.
The other group, meanwhile, features Samoa (No. 48), Iran (No. 66), Hong Kong (No. 73) and Kyrgyzstan (No. 100).
Expected to lead the charge for Gilas Girls are holdovers from the U16 roster Ava Fajardo, Naomi Panganiban and Gabby Ramos, along with Alicia Villanueva, who has been a revelation for the Nationals during their SEABA tilt.
Gilas needs to finish on top of its group to get an outright semifinal berth in the tournament. The second and third placers of each group will then figure in a play-in for the last two spots in the semis while the last placed squad gets eliminated.
In the 2022 edition, the Gilas team led by Kate Bobadilla, Sumaya Sugapong, Louna Ozar and Kristan Geyl Yumul went on to sweep the elims to advance directly to the semis.
They, however, suffered a heartbreaking 66-65 semis defeat against eventual champions Malaysia before settling for a third place finish with a 84-68 demolition of Samoa.