Gilas Pilipinas wrapped up their series of tune up matches with another convincing 93-48 victory over the Casey Cavaliers at the Cavalier Stadium, but head coach Patrick Aquino doesn’t want to get overwhelmed despite their good showing.
Instead, he said he will focus on the next two days of preparation knowing that they have a gargantuan task ahead right on opening day of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup to be held at the Sydney Olympic Park.
“In all honesty, we’re ready and all set to compete,” Aquino said.
“It’s now just a matter of stepping out there and competing and how well we can perform inside the hard court.”
The Filipinas open their campaign on 26 June against host team Australia, ranked No. 3 in the world, at 5:30 p.m.
After that, the Philippines will take on Japan and Chinese Taipei in the next two days, both scheduled at 11:30 a.m.
The new additions, according to Aquino, had provided the Filipinas the much-needed lift and made them much better since their silver medal campaign in the recent Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia.
Gilas Pilipinas failed to secure its third straight gold medal in the biennial meet’s women’s basketball tournament and Aquino felt the need to shore up her roster.
It added Filipino-American Vanessa de Jesus from Duke University, incoming University of the Philippines first year player Louna Ozar and Jhazmin Joson from Ateneo.
These three players were able to blend well with the core of the Gilas team.
“I’m not surprised at all that Vanessa was able to blend quickly, knowing her high basketball IQ,” added Aquino.
“But Louna and Jhazmin were able to develop good chemistry with the rest of the members of the team and for the past week, we found out that we were really a team.”
The training camp, which goes along with tune up games against the Keilor Thunder and the Casey Cavaliers, had allowed the cagebelles to grow more as a squad and gave De Jesus and the newcomers an opportunity to fit in.
But Aquino was even more impressed with the team’s defensive mentality and that’s something they’ll be needing more once they go up against higher-ranked, more superior squads in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup.
“Our defense has improved a lot. When you defend well, good things will follow and that’s something we’ve seen the past week,” added Aquino. “The players who were just added were not brought there to score, but to provide additional intensity on the defensive end.”
