Gilas Pilipinas Women drop close loss to Japan in Jones Cup clash

Gilas Pilipinas Women crawled back from a double-digit hole, but ultimately ran out of steam to succumb to Japan Universiade, 85-83, in the 2024 William Jones Cup on Monday in Taiwan.

The loss sent the Filipinas to a 1-2 win-loss card while the Japanese squad remained unblemished at 3-0.

Gilas mounted a comeback after erasing what was once a 15-point deficit with Khate Castillo burying a triple to tie things up at 73-all in the fourth quarter, but Japan's Tateyama Moena completed a three-point play to give her side a slim four-point advantage, 83-79.

Japan missed a potential dagger three-pointer that set the stage for veteran Afril Bernardino to complete her own three-point chance and force an 83-all deadlock in the final 25.4 seconds.

However, the longtime Gilas stalwart committed a costly foul on Aoi Yamada, who would then sink both of her charities and leave Gilas with only 5.3 ticks to manufacture a last-gasp attempt.
 
But youngstar Naomi Panganiban went wide on her shot from downtown as the dominant Japanese squad eked out a hard-fought victory, which is their first win in this tournament where they didn't hold a lead of more 50 points lead.

An all-around outing from Bernardino went down the drain after she tallied a double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds on top of six steals, three assists, and three blocks while Jack Animam also poured in double-double effort of 20 markers and 11 boards together with three dimes.

Fujisawa Yumeha and Takako Sato paced Japan with 13 points each while Aoi and Asahina Yuki each chimed in with 10 markers to provide the help for Japan, which was coming off a 97-46 win and a 94-42 victory against Chinese Taipei A and Chinese Taipei B, respectively.

Gilas, which lost its first game to Chinese Taipei B but recovered with a huge win against Malaysia yesterday, will look to bounce back once more when it takes on Thailand on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

—JMB, GMA Integrated News