Longtime Gilas Pilipinas Women head coach Pat Aquino rued the lack of experience from his young team as they lost big against Australia to start the 2025 FIBA Women's Asia Cup.
There’s much more to learn for the Gilas Pilipinas Women after absorbing a 76-point beatdown at the hands of Australia in their opening game of the 2025 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in Shenzhen, China on Sunday.
Now flanked by a youthful team filled with UAAP stars like Kacey Dela Rosa, Kent Pastrana, Louna Ozar, Cielo Pagdulagan, and Angel Surada, the inexperienced Gilas Women faltered early against the world no. 2 Opals.
After the match, a solemn Gilas Women head coach Pat Aquino spoke about the team currently going through a “transition” period.
[READ: Gilas Women suffer 76-point beatdown from world no. 2 Australia in FIBA Women’s Asia Cup opener]
“It was a tough loss for us… A very very tough loss for these young girls. They have to learn how we play FIBA basketball and I know these girls are young girls, just playing now for FIBA. We’re in a transition that you know, we’re inserting new kids and we got to do better,” said Aquino.
Against towering Australians, Gilas Women could not get anything going, save for a spirited run in the first quarter where they got themselves within five, 9-14, after a 12-0 start from the Opals.
But that was as far as Gilas could go in terms of closing the gap.
The Opals didn’t waste time in blowing the game wide open when they amped up the scoring, finishing the first quarter ahead by 17, 31-14.
From then on, it was all Australia.
As far as Aquino is concerned, something has to give for Gilas Women to grow sooner, rather than later, especially as former national team players are already getting older — like Afril Bernardino, Janine Pontejos, Chack Cabinbin, and Andrea Tongco.
Those players, filled with immense national team experience, are currently unavailable due to clearance concerns from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“We hope that we can do better coming into the next few games, and, hopefully we could start learning more on how we play better together and, that’s it. Just compete,” said Aquino.
“I always say that our team is a competitive team and I think we still have it and I can still make this team a better team than this one,” he added.
Still, there were some flashes of brilliance from newer players — with UST star Kent Pastrana and youth team product Naomi Panganiban both finishing with eight points each in the losing effort.
Aquino, though, acknowledges that there needs to be more improvement for both players and across the team.
“They played well but there’s a lot more learning to come. I know this experience that they had right now, this game, makes them very vulnerable on how they play the next game. So, just a thought on them, saying that they could do better,” said Aquino.
“They can learn from what they had today and hopefully, you know, getting all those experiences, that they’re having right now, that can make a better team in the future.”
Learning needs to be quick for Gilas Women, though, as they are set to play world no. 9 Japan in their second game on Monday, July 14.
Gilas is seeking to stay in Division A and hopefully finish in the top six and get a chance to compete in the qualifying tournament of the 2026 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Germany.