Healing a wound
The Gilas Pilipinas women’s team did what its more prominent male counterparts couldn’t pull off in the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
In a first in Team Philippines’ participation at the Games, the female dribblers are again in the quarterfinals of women’s basketball, almost a week after the all-PBA squad suffered its worst-ever finish in the quadrennial sports spectacle.
Gilas advanced by way of Sunday’s 90-73 win over Hong Kong on Sunday at Aichi International Arena, although it took until the latter part of the third before it could go to 2-0 with a game left in group play.
It will be the second straight time that Gilas Women, now under Canadian coach BT Toews, made the quarterfinals of the Games, a first for the women’s program. But the hard part now begins for Toews and company as it aims for a breakthrough semis berth.
Sunday was a big day for the Philippine contingent, as the women’s soft tennis team bagged the country’s first medal, a bronze, after bowing out in the semifinals against Japan, 2-0.
After that, Carlos Alvarez and Jean Claude Saclag delivered at least two more bronze medals for Team PH, with Alvarez scoring a KO win over Indonesia’s Ananda Wahyu Setyo in the men’s MMA traditional -77kg quarterfinals.
Saclag, who drew a bye in the preliminary round of the traditional -65kg, scored a unanimous decision victory over Saud Fawaz Almolhem. He next fights Daisuke Murayama of Japan, who won via TKO over Gibran Alfarizi of Indonesia.
Alvarez found the perfect opening in the second round to finish what started as a tight contest.
“I really felt that I needed a knockout to win because it was so tight in the first round,” Alvarez said in Filipino. Alvarez said that he will settle for nothing less than the gold medal as he battles Yerkingali Burkutalin of Kazakhstan in the semifinals on Monday at 9:40 a.m. Manila time for a place in the title match.
Gilas, meanwhile, wraps up group play with its first big test in powerhouse Japan, which walloped Hong Kong, 114-37, on Thursday before dominating Kazakhstan, 88-23, also on Sunday.
The Filipino women’s other win came at the expense of Kazakhstan, 86-58.
Toews, who coached in Japan at the professional level before accepting the Gilas role, is embracing the massive challenge that lies ahead for his squad.
“Nobody can say that there’s no way we can win, right?” Toews said. “We can definitely win this game, but we’re going to need a better performance.”
The other Tuesday matches will determine where Gilas will end up in the quarters and who it plays.
The eight quarterfinal teams will be seeded based on their win-loss records and point differentials. The Nos. 1 and 2 seeds play against the Nos. 8 and 7, respectively, while teams ranked third and fourth play the fifth and sixth-ranked teams. Competition regulations also prevent teams from the same group from meeting in the quarterfinals.
Gilas Women’s performance came after the men’s squad failed to enter the knockout phase after a 1-2 record in Group C, missing out on one of the two best third-place spots and being dethroned early.
The female quintet avoided that predicament behind strong performances from naturalized player Beth Means, Stef Berberabe and veteran Afril Bernardino.
Berberabe topscored for Gilas against Hong Kong with 21 points after firing three triples while Bernardino posted all-around numbers of 17 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks.
They need to keep their forms going into the critical games that could decide their medal chances. The Japan faceoff may serve as a gauge.
“I feel like many people see us as the underdogs, so I’m up for it,” Berberabe said. “I love the challenge. It’s okay to be the underdog. Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with that, so I’m excited.”
Gilas came into the Games missing some of its key mainstays for various reasons, namely Jack Animam and Vanessa de Jesus because of club duties and Kacey dela Rosa, who was inserted into the women’s U-23 3×3 squad for the Games.
