It's the first time FIBA launched a Pre-Qualifying Tournament for the Women's World Cup, which gave the young Gilas Pilipinas Women experience against top teams from South America, Europe, and Africa.
The young Gilas Pilipinas Women, ranked 40th in the world, bow out early from the FIBA Women's World Cup 2026 Pre-Qualifying Tournament after three straight losses in Group C. But they will go home with some admiration from Rwanda and the rest of Africa.
"I might not be the only one who fell in love with your team. You never quit, you never gave up," a reporter from FIBA Africa told Gilas coach Patrick Aquino and the 18-year-old Naomi Panganiban after the 87-62 loss to Senegal.
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"The keyword was to play together and to show how that part of the world can play with this part of the world," Aquino noted. "Just the experience and showing everybody that we belong [make us] so proud. Especially to the the girls, with the way we played."
"I definitely learned from my teammates, older sisters to fight until the end," added the 18-year-old Naomi Panganiban, who had 14 points. "Giving it our best, never give up."
She admitted that they didn't have a defensive matchups for the bigger Senegalese: "I'm proud how we fought and kept going until the end."
This is the first time that FIBA held a Pre-Qualifying Tournament for the Women's World Cup. And for the Gilas Pilipinas Women--with an average age of 22--that meant this was their first venture outside FIBA Asia.
They had a narrow loss to world no. eight Brazil before absorbing double-digit defeats to Hungary and Senegal.
"It's an honor to represent our part of the world. I know we fell short, but the experience and the learnings make us proud to just to get back home and to play more tournaments," Aquino added.
[ALSO READ: 'We deserve to be here': Ella Fajardo makes passionate argument for Gilas Pilipinas Women in FIBA Women's World Cup Pre-Qualifiers]
The Women's World Cup dream may be over for the Gilas Pilipinas Women, but they hope to improve and inspire more girls to come and play.
"Those things we learned from here, you're never gonna get it from anywhere. We hope we could do more from here in the future," Aquino said. "We believe in the future, there'll be more girls like this that can play as hard as we can and show we deserve to be here."