China showed the Philippines why they have the top under-18 women’s basketball program in the world.
Gilas Pilipinas Girls’ 3×3 were picked apart by China, suffering a 12-21 loss with 22.7 seconds to spare, in the quarterfinals of the 2019 FIBA 3X3 Under-18 World Cup, Friday afternoon in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
With the loss, the Philippines will most likely fall to eighth place in the global meet. Not bad for a squad that was seeded as the 14th squad among 20 teams.
The trio of Xianglin Wu, Bei Liu, and Zhouze He went off to a hot start to begin the contest, giving China a 5-0 start early.
The Philippines scored its first basket with 8:11 on the clock courtesy of Camille Clarin. However, China was able to put up two straight buckets for a 7-1 lead.
Back-to-back buckets by Ann Pingol gave life to the Filipinas as it sparked a 6-4 spurt to cut the lead to just four.
He though answered right back with big buckets that gave China a six-point cushion, 14-8, with under three minutes left.
Needing one last push, Ella Fajardo instigated a late Philippine rally that saw Pingol knock down a free throw ang Angelica Surada score on a tough deuce to slice the lead to just three, 12-15, with 1:16 left.
However, China proved to be too much — particularly Zhouze He.
He caught fire late, scoring back-to-back deuces to stop the Filipinas from their tracks. Then with 22.7 ticks remaining, Xianglin Wu found a wide-open Bei Liu for the game-sealing deuce to end the Philippines’ campaign.
The high-scoring duo of Fajardo and Clarin were limited to just three and two points, respectively.
Surada led the Philippines with four points while Pingol chipped in three markers.
China, who await the winner of the Japan-New Zealand game in the semis, was led by He’s 12 huge points.
The Scores:
Philippines 12 – Surada 4, Fajardo 3, Pingol 3, Clarin 2.
China 21 – He 12, Liu 6, Wu 3, Gao 0.
