By MARK REY MONTEJO
Gilas Pilipinas men’s and women’s teams came up short in their respective campaigns after settling for fourth place finishes in the FIBA 3×3 U23 Nations League at the Fengfeng Mining Area Museum in Handan Shi, China Sunday, June 17.
The Nationals, composed of collegiate dribblers in Noy Remogat, Patrick Sleat, JM Tulabut and Art Roque, capped their assignments by winning over Turkmenistan (21-17) and succumbing to Mongolia (21-13) in the sixth and final stop of the Asia 2 bracket. They accumulated 390 Tour Points (TP) for fourth place.
The men’s team had a splendid showing in the fifth stop, sweeping its daily rivals for a 3-0 card – the only time they ruled a leg and went unscathed in the week-long tournament.
Despite reeling from a painful loss to the Japanese (19-18) in the Stop 6 finals, the Mongolians still topped the men’s tournament after accumulating 540 TP.
They were followed by Japan (460), China (395), the Philippines (390), Kazakhstan (335) and Turkmenistan (310).
Meanwhile, the Filipinas, led by Camille Clarin, collected 380 tour points and settled for fourth place.
Clarin alongside Angelica Surada, Elaine Etang, and Karl Ann Pingol closed their final leg campaign as third place as they demolished Turkmenistan, 21-5, but suffered an overtime defeat to Mongolia, 17-15.
China took the title with 520 points while Japan (470) and Mongolia (415), finished second and third, respectively.
In the FIBA 3×3 Women’s Series Clermont-Ferrand leg, Gilas Pilipinas women’s quartet of Kaye Pingol, Hazelle Yam, Sam Harada and Allana Lim had two straight losses to Azerbaijan (17-22) and the Netherlands (5-21) in Pool D.
That resulted in an 11th place finish in France after finishing sixth in Mongolia last week.
Pingol and the Nationals will try again in France as they compete in Orleans on June 20 to 21, Wuhan, China on June 29 to 30, and their final test in Langfang, a Chinese city as well, on July 12 to 13.
The Filipinas currently carry 61 tour points at 17th in the 28-country cagefest.
