Gilas girls improve six places to No. 43 in FIBA rankings

MANILA, Philippines -- Gilas Pilipinas girls rose by six spots in the FIBA World Rankings, the basketball federation announced.

The Philippine youth girls’ team is now ranked 43rd in the world -- up from 49th a year ago -- after a successful conquest in the FIBA U18 Women’s Asia Cup Division B back in June.

The young Filipinas, led by Naomi Panganiban, Alicia Villanueva and Ava Fajardo, finished on top of the Division B to earn a spot in Division A two years from now.

The Philippines is now ranked seventh in the region after being the 10th in Asia in last year’s list.

The top four of Asia remained the same from last year.

Australia remains to be the top girls’ team in Asia. The squad remained fifth in the world, followed by World No. 6 Japan, who rose by three spots in the world ranking.

China is still ranked third in Asia, while being at the 18th spot in the world. World No. 21 Korea is fourth in the region.

New Zealand took Chinese Taipei’s fifth spot in Asia as they rose to No. 24 in the world. Chinese Taipei dropped to sixth and is now ranked 27th in the world.

World No. 44 Samoa, No. 55 Malaysia and No. 56 Syria complete Asia’s top 10.

USA remained on top of the world as the best girls’ basketball team. It is followed by Spain, Canada, France, Australia, Japan, Hungary, Slovenia, Belgium and Finland in the top 10.