Gilas Pilipinas goes head-to-head with Samoa for a spot in the final of the FIBA U18 Women’s Asia Cup Division B at the Futian Sports Park in Shenzhen, China on Friday.

Organizers have yet to announce the exact time but the Filipinas are determined to win over the Samoans and duplicate their 84-68 victory in the bronze medal match of the 2022 Women’s Asia Cup in India.

Gilas girls made it to the semifinals after topping Group A via the virtue of their impressive 141-18 win over Maldives in the first game followed by an 89-63 victory over Lebanon.

Meanwhile, the Samoans are coming from a 94-31 win over Maldives to gain a chance of competing for a spot in the final round.

But the Philippines has been impressive as it leads the seven-team tourney in scoring, rebounding and assists category.

Gilas Women posted averages of 115 points, 68.5 rebounds and 26 assists per game while the Samoans average 78.3 points, 64.5 rebounds and 20.3 assists in the entire competition.

Gilas head coach Julie Amos believes the team’s unselfishness will be the key in beating the Samoans in the semifinals to gain a chance to face the survivor in the Iran-Lebanon battle in the gold medal match.

“All of our players are unselfish, they attack, look for an open person and then rotate. Nobody wants to score, they want to attack for their teammates to score and that’s one thing we enjoy especially when our shots are sinking, like all those threes at the end,” Amos said.

Tereise Reupena, who scored 10 points and produced a game-high 11 steals against Maldives, has hopes the Samoans can exact revenge for their loss back in 2022.

“We are moving forward, learning from the past and now concentrating on the next game against the Philippines, we have a strong winning mindset,” she said.

“This has been a fun tournament for me, playing with a bunch of different girls against some great teams, it’s been really good.”