COACH Burke ‘BT’ Toews knows the disappointment of falling short, but he also sees the Asian Games campaign as an important step in building Gilas Pilipinas Women into a team capable of consistently competing with Asia’s best.
The Philippines’ bid for a breakthrough semifinal appearance ended with an 83-71 quarterfinal loss to Chinese Taipei, but Toews believes the bigger lesson goes beyond the result.
“To build a program that is perpetually able to compete with the top teams in Asia is not done in one week, one month, and not even a year, to be honest,” explained Toews.
Gilas Women had a chance to reach the Final Four for the first time in a long while, even cutting the deficit to six points in the second half before Chinese Taipei pulled away.
Afril Bernardino led the Philippines with 23 points, while Stefanie Berberabe and Janine Pontejos added 12 apiece and Kent Jane Pastrana finished with 11.
For Toews, however, the campaign offered both encouragement and a clearer picture of what needs to improve.
“Although it’s very disappointing, I tried to look at the things that we did well with a short amount of preparation, and I’m also looking at the things that we really need to work on,” he continued.
That reflection also includes Toews himself.
Coaching Filipino players for the first time has given the veteran Asian coach another learning curve, and he said evaluating his own approach will be part of taking the program forward.
“This is a new experience for me teaching Filipino players, so there’s a certain amount of reflection that I have to do as a coach, in spite of being a veteran coach in Asia for a long, long time,” he said.
Toews also emphasized that the players deserve recognition for the physical effort they gave throughout the tournament.
“Today, I’m going to try to comfort my players because they gave me maybe not their best performance, but they physically worked hard,” Toews said.
The disappointment, he said, will have its moment but it will not define what comes next.
“And then I’m going to probably take the next 24 hours to feel bad about this. And then after that, I’m going to move forward,” he added.
For Gilas Women, the Asian Games may have ended without the breakthrough semifinal appearance they wanted, but Toews is already looking at the foundation that can be built from the experience. (Jesus Nathaniel Valdez)
