Gilas Pilipinas had proven that it belongs to the elite circle following a strong performance in the FIBA Asia U16 Women’s Championship in Amman, Jordan.
Composed of a mixture of homegrown and Filipino-American stars, the Filipinas clobbered their foes by an average winning margin of 61 points, including a merciless 122-point massacre of Maldives last week.
Clearly, Gilas girls have sent a strong statement that it really belongs to Division A, something that they could have done as early as last year if not for a sorry loss to eventual Division B champion Samoa.
Leading the pack are Ava Fajardo and Ryan Nair, who were both 14 years old when they joined the program being handled by project director Patrick Aquino.
In their 79-44 bashing of Malaysia, Fajardo emerged with a double-double performance of 20 points and 10 rebounds on top of five assists while Nair submitted averages of 11.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game.
Gilas are clashing with Iran at press time in the winner-take-all title showdown with the winner booking a spot in the Division A in 2025.
Aquino, who also serves as head coach, believes that the chemistry established by the team prior to joining the tournament had played a big role in their success.
Aquino also credited his assistant coach, Ai Lebornio, for doing a good job preparing the team while he was still busy with the seniors squad, which campaigned in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in Australia a few weeks ago.
“Coach Ai did a wonderful job preparing the team and they didn’t stop training, especially at the time when we were playing in the FIBA Asia Cup,” Aquino said.
