Pinay dribblers take harsh beating

MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas women tasted a harsh 127-49 defeat against China at the close of the FIBA Asia-Oceania Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament preliminaries yesterday at The Trusts Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. 

The Nationals ended their campaign winless after also absorbing similar one-sided losses against New Zealand (111-57) and South Korea (114-75). 

Gilas women bowed in three matches by an average losing margin of 58.0 points to wrap up their pre-qualifiers campaign on a forgettable note. 

Hurt by their first two blowout defeats, the Filipinas were left off the dust right from the opening tip with a massive 10-36 first quarter deficit that set that stage to their 78-point loss. 

Sniper Janine Pontejos was the only double-digit scorer with 16 points for the Nationals, who got owned in rebounding, 69-21, and assists, 40-9. They also shot a lowly 25-percent clip compared to China’s 58-percent field goal mark. 

Six Chinese dribblers finished in double figures, bannered by Xu Han’s 26 markers and nine boards. 

Yueru Li (14), Sijing Huang (12), Siyu Wang (11), Mengran Sun (10) and Liwei Yang (10) complemented Han as China finished with a 2-1 slate in Pool A to book a semis ticket in this pre-OQT serving as first stop of a long route to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The Nationals, on the other hand, bombed out of contention and will now look forward to their upcoming 30th Southeast Asian Games campaign. 

With the home crowd behind them, Gilas women will be gunning for its first SEA Games gold medal after copping a pair of bronze medals and a fourth place finish in the past three editions.