Gilas improves 1 spot in FIBA rankings

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines has risen by one spot in the latest FIBA World rankings, the basketball federation said.

According to the latest world basketball rankings released February 27, Gilas Pilipinas is now ranked 37th in the world.

This comes after the first window of the FIBA continental qualifiers.

Gilas defeated Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei convincingly last month.

The Philippines demolished Hong Kong, 94-64, then completely obliterated Chinese Taipei by 53 points, 106-53, at home to end up on top of Group B play.

The next window of qualifiers will be in November this year.

In Asia, the Philippines is ranked eighth.

Gilas is behind Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Iran, Lebanon, China and Jordan.

The United States is still on top of the world. Coming in second is Spain.

FIBA World Cup champion Germany is third, while Serbia and Australia round up the top five.

Latvia, Canada, Argentina, France and Lithuania complete the top 10.