Gilas Pilipinas seeks to stop its two-game slump when it battles reigning African champion and world No. 8 Nigeria in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Qualifying Tournament at the Astroballe in Lyon, France on Saturday.
Tip off is set at 9 p.m. (Manila time) with the Filipinas gunning for a win that would keep them in the hunt for one of the two available slots for the 2027 World Cup in Germany.
The Germans, who defeated Gilas Women 113-80 last Friday, are already qualified as the host, while the Nigerians booked their slots after emerging as Afrobasket champions.
Gilas Women head coach Pat Aquino said he is confident that they will be able to come up with a win in the qualifiers, where all the world’s best countries are seeing action.
“Yeah, we’re getting the numbers and that’s the thing that we’re happy about because that’s the plan — getting the numbers. But at the moment the numbers are getting higher with the other teams, so we’re trying to stop that,” Aquino said.
“We know that we’ve learned a lot, but that learning has to stop and we’ve got to work on it.”
The Philippines holds a 0-2 win-loss record while Nigeria has a 1-1 card after crushing Colombia, 70-37 before losing to South Korea, 60-77.
Nigeria head coach Rena Wakama said have already put their sorry loss to the Koreans behind as they gear up for the Filipinas.
“We’re not going to overreact to a loss. There’s lessons in losses,” said Wakama, an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky in the Women’s National Basketball Association. Ivan Suing
“We’re going to take more of a lesson from this game (against Korea) and just try to get better and be ready for our next game.”
Victoria Macaulay will be Nigeria’s first option as she is the only player in the roster to average double digits with 17.5 points and six rebounds in two games.
For the Philippines, it will be Sumayah Sugapong as she has an average of 17 points in two games along with veteran Afril Bernardino, who posted 12.5 points per game.