A hobbling and exhausted Gilas Pilipinas Women was shown the door after suffering a 9-19 beating at the hands of Chinese-Taipei in the quarterfinal of the FIBA 3×3 Asia Cup on Sunday at the Singapore Sports Hub.
The No. 8 seed Taiwanese took advantage of their size and fresher legs to pull away from the gassed Filipinas midway through the match that started in a see-saw battle before Gilas went on a costly four-minute scoring drought.
A 9-1 run by Chinese-Taipei opened a 13-6 gap that even ballooned to 16-8 after Shi-Han Hsu nailed an outside shot with 42 seconds left.
Chinese-Taipei advanced to the semis to face last year’s runner-up New Zealand, which beat Japan, 15-14, in the other quarters pairing, as of press time.
Despite the efforts of a hurt Mikka Cacho, Jhaz Joson, Camille Clarin and Kaye Pingol, Gilas had no more gas left in their tank after going through the proverbial eye of the needle to secure a spot in the knockout stage.
The Pinay ballers had to go through five games — winning it all — from the three-game qualifiers to sweeping Pool C of the preliminary round at the expense of seeded Malaysia and third-ranked Mongolia.
A one-day rest wasn’t enough for the Gilas to recover, though.
Gilas built a 5-4 lead after Pingol’s basket with 7:46 left before going scoreless in the next four minutes as Chinese-Taipei took the driver’s seat.
Cacho, bothered by pain in her knee, finished with four points, Clarin had three while Pingol and Joson had a point each for Gilas, who had a dry outside sniping.
Yu Chieh Chen muscled her way to eight points to lead Chinese-Taipei.
Also advancing in the semis was Mongolia, which beat China 20-7, and defending champion Australia after crushing Thailand, 21-8.
Meanwhile, Gilas Pilipinas had a short stint in men’s action after absorbing back-to-back losses Saturday night in Pool C of the prelims.
Composed of TNT trio of Ping Exciminiano, Gryann Mendoza, and Chester Saldua along with Meralco sniper Joseph Sedurifa, the Filipinos were no match against Australia and Japan.
