In the 44th William Jones Cup, the Gilas Pilipinas Women’s team endured a lopsided loss in the hands of the Chinese Taipei team for their debut match yesterday, July 2 at the Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium.
A Solid First Half but a Disastrous Second Half
Despite a competitive first half where the Filipinas trailed by just 4 points at the break, 39-35, the game quickly slipped away in the second half as the home team pulled off a dominant surge.
Chinese Taipei outscored Gilas 46-24 in the last two quarters, highlighted by an explosive third period where they extended their lead to 61-43 following a layup from Szu-Ching Peng. The hosts’ lead ballooned to as much as 26 points after a strong inside finish by Chen Yen-yu.
Final Score: 85-59
American reinforcement Sidney Cooks led Chinese Taipei with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Wen-Yu Lin added 14 points, and Wei-Ching Liao chipped in 10 markers and six boards. Ling-Chuan Huang also impressed with a balanced stat line of nine points, seven rebounds, and four assists.
Numbers Don’t Lie
Through the stat sheet, Gilas lost in almost all departments of the game.
The Philippines lost the rebounding category, 47-38, as well as in the assists, 27-13. Chinese Taipei also made more three’s, 8-26, compared to the Philippines, 5-20. The home team also recorded 3 blocks while the Philippines had none the whole game.
The absence of key players like Janine Pontejos, Afril Bernardino, and Jhack Cabinbin which were fulfilling military commitments, became a huge factor in the loss.
There were only a few players who had a decent game. Jack Animam carried her team with 18 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. While Gilas’ elite guard, Ella Fajardo, scored 10 points along with two 3-pointers (most in the entire team), 2 boards, an assist and a steal.
Here are the stats of other Gilas players:
- Naomi Panganiban – 11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals
- Vanessa De Jesus – 7 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists,
- Sumayah Sugapong – 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist
- Louna Ozar – 6 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist
The women’s national basketball team will try to quickly recover from this as they’ll face the team of Thailand later, July 3 (Thursday) at 4:00 PM. Thailand also had a lopsided loss in their opening match against the Japan’s Universiade squad, 103-49.
This William Jones Cup is a preparation of the Gilas Pilipinas Women’s team for their upcoming participation in the 2025 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup.
