By JONAS TERRADO
Gilas Pilipinas suffered a 127-49 loss to China Sunday morning to end up winless in the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament Asia-Oceania at The Trusts Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.
The Pinay cagers allowed their Chinese counterparts to score the game’s first eight points before being handed another lopsided defeat in the tournament that serves as the first phase of qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.
Janine Pontejos was the only player to score double figures for Gilas with 16 points.
Coach Pat Aquino’s squad is hoping that the matches against crack teams will help toughen up the team ahead of the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Women’s basketball competitions begin on Dec. 4 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Gilas opened its Pre-Qualifying stint with a 111-54 loss to New Zealand last Thursday before absorbing a 114-75 defeat against South Korea two days later.
Xu Han had 26 points and nine rebounds while Xuemeng Wang and Yueru Li added 14 points each.
