Gilas Women smash Senegal

Gilas Pilipinas Women salvaged some measure of pride despite falling short of advancing into the next round of the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-qualifying Tournament.

The Filipinas staved off a fourth-quarter uprising by Senegal to snatch a hard-fought 79-75 victory and wrap up their campaign on a winning note Friday at the Astros Arena in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Kacey dela Rosa and Jack Animam delivered the crucial points in the final two minutes of the tight ballgame as Gilas Women closed Group B action with a 1-2 win-loss record while sending the world No. 22-ranked Senegalese home winless in three outings.

“What a difference a day makes. Senegal is definitely not Canada but their ranking is better than ours,” Gilas Women head coach BT Toews said as his team rebounded from a 47-point beating at the hands of seventh-ranked Canada on Thursday.

“I said yesterday when we were talking about being completely dominated in every category, that despite of that, I still thought that our defense was getting better. I thought we showed it today big time,” he added.

Dela Rosa, Sophia Dignadice and Vanessa de Jesus scored 16 points each while Animan added 14 for Gilas Women.

“Even when both of our bigs had foul trouble, we played small ball, we were able to keep Senegal’s paint area field goal percentage very low; it was 37 percent. If you have that kind of defense and you have a good day shooting then it could be tough no matter who you’re playing. Today there was really balanced scoring,” Toews said.

Dela Rosa hit a triple and a layup to keep the Philippines in front, 78-73, with 1:28 left after Senegal rallied to close in from an 11-point deficit entering the fourth period.

Nogaya Diagne trimmed Gilas Women’s lead to a one-possession game, 78-75, with 1:17 left. Two missed pressure-packed free throws by Madjuguene Sene in the final 68 seconds gave Gilas Women an opening to put the game away as Animam sank one of her two free throws with 12.6 ticks left in the clock.

Gilas Women held on to snap a two-game slide that started with a stinging close-shaved decision to Mexico followed by Canada’s blowout.

The Philippines led for most of the first half before being overtaken by Senegal, 46-50, with 4:27 left in the third period.

Gilas Women answered with a 15-0 blast to enter the final canto with a 61-50 advantage.