Despite a tough end to the tournament, Gilas Pilipinas Women have a one-game improvement in their Jones Cup run compared to last year.
Gilas Pilipinas Women ended their 43rd William Jones Cup campaign with a tough 82-66 defeat to Chinese Taipei-A on Wednesday, July 10, at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium in Taiwan.
The Filipinas simply couldn’t get past Chinese Taipei in the tournament, having also lost to Chinese Taipei-B in their opener last Saturday.
The loss dropped the Philippines to a 2-3 record in the annual tournament. Gilas defeated Malaysia and Thailand, marking a one-game improvement from last year's run.
Japan bagged the title with a 5-0 record.
A hot start from Chinese Taipei spelled doom for the Nationals after going down by as many as 16 points in the first quarter, 26-10.
Naomi Panganiban and Stephanie Berabe tried everything they could to spark a comeback, but Chinese Taipei’s lead proved to be too much to overcome.
Yu-Ting Lin led Chinese Taipei-A with 15 points. Tieh Lin finished with 14 points, Wenyou Lin contributed 10 markers, while Shihan Xu and Mengxin Chen added nine points apiece.
Panganiban did all she could for Gilas Women as she finished with 19 points. Also finishing in double digits were Berabe and Afril Bernardino, who had 12 apiece.