The Philippine national women’s basketball team got a rude welcome to top-tier action in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup after suffering a 106-55 beating against Asian powerhouse Japan on Sunday at Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru, India.
Gemma Miranda scored 17 points to lead the Filipinas, ranked 49th in the world, who were blown out by the 13th-ranked Japanese right from the tip-off.
It was only the first of Perlas Pilipinas’ upcoming tiffs against some of Asia’s best women’s basketball teams. The squad was promoted to Division A of the competition after topping Division B in 2015.
Perlas Pilipinas will next take on fourth-ranked Australia and 15th-ranked South Korea to round up its assignments in the preliminary round.
