Gilas U16 belles level up, sweep FIBA Asian Championship

A big second-quarter burst was all the girls of the Gilas Pilipinas under-16 team needed to pull away from Iran and allowed the Philippines to coast to an 83-60  triumph in the Divison B finals of the FIBA U16 Women's Asian Championship at the City Arena Prince Hamza late Sunday (early Monday morning in Manila).

The Filipinas held the taller, but inexperienced Iranians, a first-time participant in this tournament, to just 11 points in the second period while also outscoring the dangerous team from the Middle East by 11, 22-11, to take a 41-26 lead at the half.

Gilas Pilipinas unloaded a 9-0 start in the third, then held Iran without a field goal in more than five minutes, allowing the Pinay cagebelles to dictate the tempo.

In the third, Gilas continued to put on more pressure as they held the Iranians scoreless in the first three and a half minutes with a suffocating defense.

Allysa Palma typified that tough interior defense as she came up with two blocks in the first four minutes of play while the rest of the Filipinas unloaded 12 unanswered points to take a sizeable 53-26 lead off a three-point basket from Sophia Canindo, 7:02 left in the third and Gilas were never seriously threatened from there.

In sweeping the five games in the tournament, and emerging as champions in the Division B, the Gilas cagebelles had been elevated to Division A of the FIBA U16 Asian Championship and will start playing against the top-tier teams beginning the 2025 edition of this tournament.