Gilas Pilipinas Women vented their frustrations on Vietnam, 116-58, for a strong bounce-back in the 32nd Southeast Asian Games basketball competitions, Saturday at the Morodok Techo National Stadium in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Barely 24 hours since a blowout loss to Indonesia, the Filipina cagers turned in their finest offensive outing to date, exploding for 68 first half points on the way to scoring the second-most lopsided result of this year’s meet.
They were just two points away from matching the biggest winning margin of the ongoing women’s tilt set by none other than themselves — a 60-point drubbing of the host nation, 114-54, last Wednesday to start their campaign.
GIlas improved to 3-1 following its conquest of the Vietnamese, sitting at third in the standings behind the Indonesians (4-0) and Malaysia (3-1).
Khate Castillo spearheaded the rebound with a game-high 22 points, nailing seven of the team’s whopping 18 three-pointers — 11 in the first half.
Jack Animam tallied her first double-double of the tourney with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Frontcourt partner Clare Castro made 15 points and six boards.
Afril Bernardino supplied 12 points and six rebounds, while Janine Pontejos and Camille Clarin added 11 markers on three treys apiece in the dominant victory that saw Coach Pat Aquino’s charges shoot 52-percent from the field.
Now, the Philippines will look to sweep its last two matches versus Thailand and Malaysia to keep the three-peat bid, albeit slim, alive.
Kaylynne Truong, meanwhile, was the only double-digit scorer for Vietnam with 15 points in the loss that dragged down their record to 1-3.
Truong and Co. were still in the game when they trailed by just five with 3:38 left in the first quarter, but Gilas finished the period strongly behind the trio of Animam, Castro, and Andrea Tongco for a 35-25 lead.
Vietnam could no longer keep up since then. They got outscored, 33-9, in the second period and entered the break down big, 68-34, and never recovered — so much so that they went down by as much as 60 at one point.
Vietnam made only 30-percent of their shots, including 6-of-29 from deep. It also lost the boards by a big margin, 35-58.
The Scores:
Philippines (116) – Castillo 22, Animam 16, Castro 15, Bernardino 12, Pontejos 11, Clarin 11, Tongco 9, Fajardo 7, Berberabe 4, Cabinbin 4, Guytingco 3, Surada 2.
Vietnam (58) – Truong TV 15, Jones 9, Duy 8, Tran 7, Truong TM 6, Bui KN 4, Tien 3, Bui TH 2, Hang 2, Huynh 2, Vo 0.
Quarterscores: 35-25, 68-34, 95-44, 116-58.
