Gilas Women end Jones Cup campaign with loss to Chinese Taipei A

Gilas Women bow to Chinese Taipei A in Jones Cup

Gilas Pilipinas Women ended their 43rd William Jones Cup campaign with a tough 82-66 defeat to Chinese Taipei A on Wednesday July 10, at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium in Taiwan.

The nationals fell behind early, trailing 26-10 at the end of the first quarter and never recovered from that initial onslaught by the host country.

It did not help that Jack Animam was held down to just six attempts for eight points and nine rebounds, while Janine Pontejos and Afril Bernardino battled foul trouble the entire game.

Naomi Panganiban top-scored for them with 19 points, four rebounds, and two assists, while Bernardino had 12 markers and six rebounds for Gilas Women.

Panganiban and Stephanie Berabe tried everything they could to spark a comeback, but Chinese Taipei’s lead proved to be too much to overcome.

Yu-Ting Lin led her pack with 15 points. Tieh Lin finished with 14 markers, Wenyou Lin contributed 10, while Shihan Xu and Mengxin Chen added nine points each. 

With the loss, the Philippines finished fourth among six teams in the competition with a 2-3 slate while Japan bagged the title with a 5-0 record. 

Gilas defeated Malaysia and Thailand, marking a one-game improvement from last year’s run.