Japanese gunners blast Gilas Women

Gilas Pilipinas got blitzed by Japan’s long-range missiles and choking defense in a 67-89 loss to the host team at the close of the 20th Asian Games women’s 5-on-5 basketball group phase on Tuesday at the Aichi International Arena in Nagoya.

Japan drained 15 three-pointers and forced the Filipinas into committing 20 turnovers, which the Japanese converted to 20 turnover points on their way to completing a sweep of Pool B.

Despite the loss that snapped its back-to-back win streak, the Philippines will still advance into the knockout quarterfinals, albeit the defeat put Gilas on a possible collision course with Asian powerhouses South Korea or Chinese Taipei.

Naturalized player Beth Means finished with 16 points, missing just one of her eight field goal attempts, and grabbed nine rebounds but also contributed five of Gilas’ atrocious miscues, including 11 from Japanese steals mostly coming off their backcourt pressure.

Afril Bernardino scored 13 on 5-of-10 field goal shooting, and Janine Pontejos got 11 for Gilas, which never tasted the lead.

“Yeah, obviously a very tough team. We knew that going in. I think there were things that we could have controlled more towards the beginning of the game, and we kind of got ourselves into a hole,” Means said.

Means added that the Gilas will take the lessons of the defeat heading into the next round.

“So, for sure, it’s honestly nice to go against a tough team. I don’t know if we’re gonna meet a defense that’s more aggressive than that. And so, I think it prepares us well for whoever we match up with in the quarterfinals, knowing that we need to compete from the jump,” she said.

Japan went 15-of-37 from the three-point area and outrebounded Gilas, 42-30. The Pinay cagers connected on just three three-pointers.

Gilas was down by 13 before getting buried by 20, 52-32, heading into the halftime break.

Mona Tateyama pushed Japan’s separation to its widest at 25 after nailing a triple, 86-61, with 4:25 left in the fourth period.

Japan got 19 points, including a 5-of-7 three-point clip, and five rebounds from Miyu Okamoto, while skipper Ami Tsuneta got 18 markers.

Tateyama fired 12 points, and Takako Sato unloaded 11 markers for Japan.