The lady cagers dealt Vietnam a 58-point beating.
Gilas Pilipinas Women bounced back massively on Saturday after a 58-point obliteration of Vietnam in the 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games at the Morodok Techo National Stadium in Cambodia, keeping the team in the hunt for the gold medal.
The Filipina dribblers absorbed a tough loss against a hot-shooting Indonesia unit on Friday, which proved to be a huge dent in their quest to defend the championship.
Unluckily for the Vietnamese, it was them who received the ire of the national crew, led by the sweet-sniping Khate Castillo.
After the game, point guard Ella Fajardo admitted to One Sports' Carlo Pamintuan that Vietnam beating Gilas Pilipinas Women for the gold medal in the 3x3 event served as extra motivation. She also pointed out that everyone's out to get them, which makes every assignment a tough one.
"Every single team, they want to beat us. There's definitely a huge target on our backs. At the end of the day, it's us against ourselves. It's personal. We have to take everything personally," said Fajardo, who contributed seven points and two rebounds in the blowout victory against Vietnam.
The 20-year-old jitterbug, who also plays for NCAA Division I school Fairleigh Dickinson, added that they had to remind themselves of what they're capable of to dust off the bitter defeat to Indonesia, which complicated the road to the gold medal for Gilas Pilipinas Women.
"It's just us reminding ourselves as teammates who we are from within our character. It doesn't change, win or lose. That's us inside. That's our puso. We had to remind ourselves who we represent and what this team is about," said Fajardo.
Because of the tournament's single round-robin format, the Philippines needs to win its last outing versus Thailand and hope that Indonesia drops its games against Cambodia and Singapore.
The odds are stacked against Gilas Pilipinas Women. But as Fajardo also said: "Tiwala."