THE basketball gods finally smiled on Gilas Pilipinas.

Despite missing out on an outright ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics following a forgettable 1-4 showing in the FIBA World Cup 2023, the Philippines found itself eligible to compete in the coming FIBA Olympic Qualfying Tournament.

That’s because the Filipinos finished 24th out of the 32 participating countries, edging Angola and Asian rival China for second place in Group M behind South Sudan.

The three countries finished in a three-way tie at 1-4.

But the Filipinos’ 21-point winning margin over the Chinese more than made up for their 10-point setback to the Angolans during the group play.

Based on point differential, the Filipinos are +11 compared to Angola (+3) and China (-11).

The final ranking followed a tier format, with the first in the classification groups ranked 17th to 20th, second in groups 21st to 24th, third in groups 25th to 28th, and fourth in groups 29th to 32nd.

Actually, the Filipinos secured one of the 19 OQT berths up for grabs in the World Cup 2023.

According to FIBA, World Cup teams which failed to earn automatic qualification to Paris will get one last shot through the OQT.

Accordingly, the next highest-placed squads each from the Americas, Africa, and Asia-Oceania after the eight Olympic qualified teams will advance to the OQT followed by the next best 16 teams in the World Cup.

As such, a total of 24 teams will compete in the OQT, along with the five winners of the Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament (Cameroon, Bahamas, Bahrain, Poland, and Croatia).

The 24 squads will be split into four OQT legs, with the four winners punching their tickets to Paris.

Based on official ranking released by FIBA, the 17th to 32nd placers in the FIBA World Cup are:

17. South Sudan (Qualified for Olympics).

18. France (Qualified for Olympics)

19. Japan (Qualified for Olympics)

20. Egypt (Qualified for OQT)

21. Finland (Qualified for OQT)

22. New Zealand (Qualified for OQT)

23. Lebanon (Qualified for OQT)

24. Philippines (Qualified for OQT)

25. Mexico (Qualified for OQT)

26. Angola (Qualified for OQT)

27. Ivory Coast (Qualified for OQT)

28. Cape Verde

29. China

30. Venezuela

31. Iran

32. Jordan