Swimmers Jessie King Lacuna and Jasmine Alkhaldi advanced in their respective events but their impressive showing was tempered by the basketball team's crushing defeat in the 3-on-3 tournament in Day 2 of the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

Lacuna, 16, finished third in the fifth of the six-heat 200-meter freestyle by clocking one minute and 51.52 seconds to barge into the finals where he is seeded seventh.

The 17-year-old Alkhaldi settled only for fifth in her heat but still made it to the semis.

However, she needs to improve her time of 58.16 seconds to advance to the medal round.

The cage squad of Bobby Ray Parks, Jr., Jeron Teng, Cris Michael Tolomia and Michael Pate was no match to US Virgin Islands, losing 28-34.

RP chief de mission and swimming association chief Mark Joseph remained confident that Alkhaldi and Lacuna could still improve their performance, saying: “It’s not her (Alkhaldi) best time yet, she just swam to qualify first and from her original rank of 16th she climbed to 13th.”

Lacuna, a product of the Palarong Pambansa and the Philippine Olympic Committee’s Philippine Olympic Festival, finished seventh overall or more than a second off the best finisher in the group after the morning heats — Russian Andrey Ushakov (1:50.34).

Alkhaldi, ranked 16th in the world, emerged as the 13th best qualifier in her event.

In basketball, the Filipinos struggled against their taller rivals who raced to a 21-12 lead at the half.

Small but speedy Kadeem Jones toyed with the Nationals with 16 points, including four from beyond the arc while Rasheed Swanton drained a pair of triples to finish with eight points as US Virgin Island, which demolished South Africa, 28-12, Sunday, posted its second win in a row.

Teng and Parks, led the Nationals with 12 and eight points, respectively; while Tolomia and Pate chipped in six and two points.

Earlier, the RP team also suffered setbacks in tennis and taekwondo following losses by netter Jeson Patrombon and jin Kirk Barbosa in Sunday’s start of competition.

Patrombon bowed to China’s No. 1 Boen Ouyang, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, to crash out in the singles division at the Kallang Tennis Center.

Patricia Llena takes her turn in the 63-kilogram class of weightlifting this Tuesday at the Suntec Convention Center.