By Adrian Stewart Co

Amid a lopsided 143-52 loss to China in the 2021 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup on Monday night, Ella Fajardo still sees silver lining for Gilas Pilipinas women for the remainder of their campaign in Amman, Jordan.

According to the Bacolod City-native point guard, the national women’s basketball team could have done better against world No. 7 ranked China and they will bring out that effort in their next two games.

Gilas women will return to action on Tuesday night (12 a.m. Wednesday in the Philippines) against Australia before closing their group stage game against Chinese-Taipei on Wednesday night (12 a.m. Thursday in the Philippines).

“Coach (Patrick Aquino) said that we played our hardest (against China), but I know for a fact and I can speak on behalf of the team that we have more to bring,” said the 5-foot-5 Fajardo.

“We have more in us. There are things that we can control, really, like getting back on defense for example. That’s something that we can control,” she added.

The 91-point loss was the worst outing of the Gilas Pilipinas women against China in three faceoffs. The Philippines previously lost to China, 117-43, in 2017 and 104-57 in 2019.

Fajardo, who is an incoming freshman for US NCAA Division 1 school Fairleigh Dickinson University, had her struggles as well against China as she ended up with six points and three assists in 13 minutes of action.

Afril Bernardino was the lone double digit scorer for the Philippines with 17 points, while the country’s only center in the roster in 6-foot-4 Clare Castro only managed one rebound in the contest.

“Despite all the circumstances that we’re going through, like our preparation time, the fact that we haven’t been playing basketball for about two years in the Philippines, it doesn’t change the fact that we still have games left,” she said.

“We just hope that the Filipinos will continue to support us in our next two games as we hope to reach the next round of the competition,” added the 18-year-old guard./ASC, WDJ