Is the Philippines' run to promotion the best ever in Division B history?

AMMAN (Jordan) - After facing heartbreak in 2022, the Philippines have finally succeeded to emerge as winners of the FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship Division B - earning them a spot in Division A in the next edition.

The young Gilas Women made it clear from start to finish that they were determined to win it all this year and would dominate anyone in their way. It was a run for the ages without a doubt, but let’s take a quick dive to see just how significant this winning campaign was compared to others in the past (India in 2017 and Samoa in 2022).

To end up at the top, you most likely will have to be at the top of some statistical categories. Sure enough, the Philippines led the competition in nearly every single major category - except for blocks.

India had a similar run of domination in 2017 with their size advantage, though they did fall a bit short of the other teams in perimeter play.

The Philippines also stood out in terms of game-by-game advantage as well.

They built big leads and never slowed down. They handled the ball and wreaked havoc on opposing ball handlers. They didn’t have quite the advantage on the boards as India but didn’t need to as they controlled the pace of the game in the open court.

Their high-octane offense stood out the most about this young Gilas Women team. The team ran-and-gunned their way to attempt at least 100 field goals in all but the Final (where they only took 97 attempts) with 37.1 of those shots being three-point attempts.

The Philippines might not have been as efficient in field goal shooting as India in 2017, but they more than made up for that difference by maintaining a higher three-point conversion rate.

Since they've proven themselves to be the cream of the crop at the Division B level by quite a margin, there should be some optimism that this young Gilas Women team will be able to turn some heads and keep their seat in Division A when the time comes in 2025. After all, they've already seen the senior Gilas Pilipinas Women team rise to the occasion less than a month ago at the Women's Asia Cup in Sydney.

FIBA