Gilas Pilipinas women in the Fiba Women’s World Cup 2026 pre-qualifying tournament. –FIBA PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Gilas Pilipinas women’s team is seeing action in the Fiba Women’s World Cup 2026 pre-qualifying tournament in Kigali, Rwanda in a first for the program.
The 40th-ranked Philippine women’s national basketball team is competing outside the Fiba Asia borders for the first time and Gilas Women are heavy underdogs as the lowest-ranked competitor outside the host Rwanda.
“Moving up the rankings means we’ll have to learn how to step outside our comfort zone,” said Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas Executive Director Erika Dy.
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“Our women’s has shown us they can be competitive in the region but there’s still a lot of work to be done to reach the next level. Joining competitions like this and going up against highly-ranked opponents will only make our players better and give our program a clear idea of what we need to do to get better.”
Gilas Women, though, showed they could hang in there with the best of them right off the bat.
In their opening game, Gilas women nearly pulled off an upset against No. 8 Brazil absorbing a 77-74 loss in Group C action.
Jack Animam starred once again for the Filipinos with a monster stat line of 18 points, 21 rebounds and four blocks. Afril Bernardino added 14 points and seven rebounds.
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The Brazilians struggled to shrug off the Filipinos for the entire game, even yielding the lead midway through the fourth quarter.
Three freethrows in the tense final minute sealed the victory for Brazil. Khate Castillo missed three-point heave that could’ve sent the game into overtime for the Philippines side.
Gilas Women continue their group phase assignment Hungary on Tuesday at 11pm then against Senegal on Thursday.
The other group features Rwanda, Great Britain, Argentina, and Lebanon. Only one team among the eight moves forward to the World Cup qualifications.