By REYNALD MAGALLON
Gilas Pilipinas has kept its spot as the 34th best in the FIBA World Ranking following a sweep of the second window of the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers .
The Nationals didn’t have any movements to its place in the list even after their historic victory over New Zealand and another commanding win over Hong Kong to remain unbeaten through two windows.
Gilas defeated the Tall Blacks, 93-89, the first time in five meetings before mauling Hong Kong, 93-54.
The Filipinos remained the seventh best in Asia behind Australia at the seventh spot in the world, Japan at No. 21 followed by No. 22 New Zealand. Iran, despite an upset loss against Qatar still sits at the 28th spot followed immediately by Lebanon and China at the 29th and 30th places.
Status quo also remained in the world top 10 with the USA still at the No.1 spot followed by Serbia, Germany, France, Canada, Spain, Australia, Argentina, Latvia and Lithuania.
Despite not getting any improvement in the world standings, Gilas is still one of the top teams in the qualifiers so far, emerging as the most efficient team across Asia with 134.3 efficiency per game followed only by Australia (127 effpg) and Lebanon (115.3 effpg).
In the offense, Gilas is ranked second in scoring, first in the assist department and third in field-goal percentage.
The Nationals are putting up 96.5 points per game just a little behind Australia’s 97.5 ppg and far ahead third ranked Lebanon which only had 92.3 ppg.
Coach Tim Cone is generating wide open shots through his triangle offense, evident in the team’s 49.2 percent shooting from the field, not too far behind China and Lebanon’s clip at 50 and 49.3 percent respectively.
Most of the open shots are also generated from the unselfishness of Gilas, which averaged a tournament-best 28 assists per game, followed by Australia’s 26 apg and South Korea’s 23.5 apg.
The twin-towers of Kai Sotto and June Mar Fajardo have been working wonders for Gilas as the Filipinos top the rebounding and block charts. Gilas is averaging 53.5 rebounds per game, topping Australia’s 50 rpg and New Zealand’s 48.3 rpg while also swatting away 5.3 shots in tie with Saudi Arabia and ahead of Japan which had 5.0 blocks per game.
Gilas is also the best in taking care of the ball, limiting their turnovers to another tournament best of 9.8 turnovers only per contest.
