Gilas boys improve to No. 25 in FIBA world rankings

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines rose by two spots in the FIBA boys’ world ranking.

The Philippine teen basketball squad is now the 25th best basketball team in the world, according to the FIBA world rankings released on December 1, two spots higher than the previous ranking.

The Gilas Pilipinas boys, back in September, settled for fourth in the FIBA U16 Asian Championship. They faced a tall China team in the bronze medal match in Qatar, which they lost, 87-59.

The teenagers were led by Joaquin Ludovice and Kieffer Alas to the fourth spot.

The bronze finish enough for the Gilas boys to grab a spot in the FIBA World Cup.

In the Asia competition, the Philippines is ranked fourth, behind No. 4 Australia, No. 20 Iran and No. 24 China.

The Filipinos are ahead of No. 27 New Zealand and No. 30 Japan.

The best youth team in the world is still the United States with 817.7 points. Seconding the Americans were Spain, followed by France, Australia and Serbia.

Rounding up the top 10 are Turkiye, Lithuania, Italy, Canada and Germany.

Germany shot up 12 spots to No. 10 after finishing third at the U18 European Championship and fifth place at the U16 European Championship.

The FIBA said that games played by boys’ national teams in the FIBA Under-19 basketball World Cup, FIBA U-17 World Cup and the FIBA regional cups in the most recent occurrences are being calculated for the world ranking of the age group.