SHENZHEN, China— Rising graduate student
Ella Fajardo of the Iona University women's basketball team is set to compete for the Philippines women's national team at the 2025 FIBA Women's Asia Cup in Shenzhen, China from July 13-20.
This will be the 31
st edition of the FIBA Women's Asia Cup, held every two years for national teams in the various subzones of Asia and Oceania. The winner of this year's tournament will earn a direct spot in the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 in Germany and teams that finish second through sixth will also qualify for the World Cup Qualifying Tournaments next year.
Gilas Pilipinas has made 17 appearances in the Women's Asia Cup and is the 44
th ranked team in FIBA's worldwide rankings as of June 2025. The Philippines will take on Japan, Australia and Lebanon as a part of group B. After pool play concludes the tournament moves on to classification and championship play in the final three days July 18-20.
Fajardo started all 32 games for the Maroon & Gold in 2024-25. She posted 14 double-digit scoring efforts this past season including three 20-point games on the way to a career-high 9.3 points per game average. Fajardo ranked second on the team in scoring and three-point field goal percentage while dishing out a team best 83 assists.
The 2025 edition of the FIBA Women's Asia Cup will be Fajardo's third. She competed with Gilas Pilipinas twice before at the event, a seventh-place finish in Amman, Jordan and a sixth-place finish in Sydney, Australia in 2023. Her last appearance with the national team was in August 2024 at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2026 Pre-Qualifying Tournament in Kigali, Rwanda where she averaged 3.3 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.
Philippines TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Pool Play (Group B)
Sunday, July 13 vs. Australia – 4:30 a.m. ET (4:30 p.m. local)
Monday, July 14 – vs. Japan – 7:30 a.m. ET (7:30 p.m. local)
Tuesday, July 15 – Rest Day
Wednesday, July 16 – vs. Lebanon – 1:30 a.m. ET (1:30 p.m. local)
Friday, July 18 - Classification (7th-8th Place) & Quarterfinals
Saturday, July 19 - Classification (5th-6th Place) & Semifinals
Sunday, July 20- Classification (3rd-4th Place) & Final
Follow the FIBA Tournament Central for game updates and live stats.
Streaming will be on Courtside 1891 with a $4.99 tournament pass to watch all the Asia Cup games from July 13-20.
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