Gilas Pilipinas may have come out winless in the FIBA Women’s World Cup pre-qualifying tournament but it is certainly coming home better and wiser after being able to battle against the top nations and, at some stretches, even holding its own and proving that the Filipinas truly belong.
 

Gilas Women wrapped up their campaign with an 87-62 loss against Senegal and exited with a 0-3 record but head coach Pat Aquino was far from being disappointed with the run that they had.

"This is a great tournament that FIBA had, the first time to play with a South American team, African team and Europe. It’s an honor to represent our part of the world and be here,” said Aquino.

“I know we fell short but the experience and the learning that we had here make us proud,” he added as the Filipinas still made a good account of themselves in their first foray outside the borders of the FIBA Asia zone.

The Nationals came close at pulling off a massive upset over world No. 8 Brazil, only losing by three points, 77-74, before getting beaten by the way taller Hungary team, 97-60.

Getting exposed to such a level of play in the international stage would certainly only do good for Gilas especially with the experience it brings to the younger players who faced up against legitimate professional players.

“I really had a great experience, just being able to soak in the scenery, the experience and just being the youngest and being able to learn it was just the biggest thing,” said Naomi Panganiban who made her seniors debut in the tournament at just 18-years-old.

“I definitely learned just from my teammates and my older sisters to just fight until the end. We always talked about fighting, giving our best and not giving up. I think we did pretty good job at doing that the whole tournament,” she added.

Future is bright for Gilas Women as Panganiban came in as the team’s second best scorer with 12 points per game, just behind the 13 points average of Jack Animam and ahead of another national team mainstay Afril Bernardino with 10 per game.

“Those things that we learned from here, we are not getting it anywhere,” said Aquino

“We hope to continue to be here and with the support of our federation, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, our president Al Panlilio and executive director Erika Dy at our back, we hope that we could do more from here in the future,” he added.