by Ashley Bercasio
Gilas Pilipinas’ hopes for a Group A promotion went up in smoke as Samoa handed them an 88-73 defeat in the Division B semifinals of 2022 FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship Wednesday night, June 29, at the Prince Hamza Sports Hall in Amman, Jordan.
After absorbing a sound 94-65 loss at the hands of the national squad last Sunday, the taller Samoan squad looked like a totally different team, outrebounding Gilas, 72-39, and limited them to a dismal 26 of 92 field goal shooting.
The national lady dribblers’ biggest weapon also went offline as they only converted 9 three-pointers on 41 attempts.
Gilas was only trailing by seven after the first quarter, but Samoa blew the game wide open at the half following a 28-12 second canto run.
The lead ballooned to 27 points in the third quarter, 59-32.
Gilas was able to trim down the deficit to 13, 74-61, in the payoff period but Samoa’s lead proved too much for Gilas to overcome.
Kira-May Filemu once again led Samoa as she played 40 minutes and relentlessly assaulted the rim enroute to a 36-point, 15-rebound outing.
Filemu got ample support as Sienna Tutani and Azaleeh Oloapu also churned monster games for Samoa.
Tutani tallied a triple-double 11 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists while Oloapu recorded 18 points and 19 rebounds.
Naomi Panganiban and Ava Fajardo led all Gilas scorers with 15 and 14 markers, respectively while last game’s high-point woman Kristan Geyl Yumul was limited to only 13 points.
Gilas will face Lebanon for third place. – bny
