By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas opened its FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2023 campaign off the wrong foot, absorbing a 105-34 beating at the hands of host Australia on Monday, June 26, at the Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre.
The world No. 3 Opals were simply too big, too quick and too strong for the Filipinas as they established a sizable margin as early as the opening frame and never looked back from there en route to the 71-point win.
Vanessa De Jesus was the lone bright spot for Gilas with 18 points as no other Filipina scored more than five in the contest.
In contrast, every Australian player fielded in the contest contributed for the Opals with Darcee Garbin and Lauren Marie Scherf leading the way with 18 and 17 points, respectively.
The Filipinas struggled against the obviously bigger and more athletic Australians who quickly raced to a 16-2 start in the opening frame.
Gilas had some answers behind baskets from De Jesus and Jhazmin Joson to keep themselves within nine, but that was basically it for the Filipinas in the first quarter.
Gilas did show some semblance of life in the second frame when an 8-0 run behind De Jesus allowed it to cut the deficit to 18, 20-38, but that proved to be the closest the Filipinas could get.
Gilas never really threatened from there as it just couldn’t get anything going offensively. In fact, the 16-point showing of the Filipinas in the second frame was already the team’s best scoring period in the contest after failing to even reach the double-digit mark in the other three quarters.
