Gilas Women seek strong finish

After dropping their first two matches, Gilas Pilipinas Women will clash with No. 1 seed Senegal in a bid to essay a strong finish in the FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifying Tournament at the Kigali Arena in the Rwandan capital on Thursday.

Game time is at 5 p.m. (Manila time) with the hard-fighting Filipinas looking to sneak in a victory at the expense of the No. 25 Senegalese.

The Philippines is coming off a sorry 60-97 loss to Hungary early Wednesday, sinking it to a 0-2 win-loss record that effectively ended its chances to advance and clinch a ticket to the FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournaments.

Prior to that, Gilas Women delivered an encouraging performance as they stood their ground before bowing with a close 74-77 setback to Brazil on Monday.

With the Senegalese on top of Group C, only the Brazilians and Hungarians are left to duke it out for the second and last playoff seed as they fashion a 1-1 record in pool play.

The Philippines, however, can still spoil the Africans bid of sweeping the group stages but it will hardly make an impact in this prestigious tourney.

Veteran guard Afril Bernardino has been the leader of the Filipinas in the scoring department with an average of 12.5 points in two games while Jack Animam isn’t far behind with 12.0 points.

Pulling off a win against the Senegalese will be easier said than done as they are coming off a 69-59 over Brazil.

Ndioma Kane, a 6-foot-3 forward, will be the player to watch for the African side as she posted a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds against the Brazilians.

Animam said despite bombing out of contention, they will still go all out as they plan to exit the tournament with their heads held high.

“We had nothing to lose. We had everything to gain, especially because we have a very young team,” Animam said.

“For them to compete in this kind of competition, I am really proud of my teammates. We fought; I can see so many good things happening. Although we lost, we gained so much. We are going to keep improving.”