Gilas Pilipinas loses to Chinese Taipei in Fiba Asia Cup opener

Gilas Pilipinas got its Fiba Asia Cup campaign off on the wrong foot after suffering a 95-87 loss to Chinese Taipei on Tuesday (early Wednesday, Philippine time) at King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The Philippines was left scrambling for answers throughout the contest against a Chinese-Taipei squad that got a huge performance from veteran guard Chen Ying-Chun (182-PG-1993, college: Liberty), who fired 34 points spiked by six triples. Quiambao Kevin (193-SF-2001) capitalized on the playing time he got in the second half to finish with 17 points, four rebounds and two assists, but Gilas couldn’t avenge its loss to the Taiwanese squad in the final window of the Asia Cup Qualifiers last February. Justin Brownlee (197-F-1988, college: St.John's) finished with 19 points but fouled out with 4:29 left in the fourth quarter, which also hastened the doom for the Filipino quintet. Scottie Thompson (188-G-1993) and Dwight Ramos (193-G-1998, college: CPP) added 16 points apiece for the Philippines. Gilas Pilipinas will seek to atone for its dismal start to the competition on Thursday against New Zealand. The Tall Blacks pulled away in the fourth quarter to escape past Iraq, 100-78, earlier in the day. Brownlee’s naturalized counterpart Gilbeck Brandon (213-C-1996, college: W.Illinois) had 16 points and nine rebounds for Chinese-Taipei while making things difficult for AJ Edu (208-F/C-2000, college: Toledo) and June Mar Fajardo (210-C-1989) in the paint. Robert Hinton (196-G-2006) added 14 points, four assists and two steals for Chinese-Taipei. Gilas only led after Brownlee scored the game’s first basket with a dunk before playing catch-up the rest of the way as Chen led Chinese-Taipei to a 17-point lead. The closest Gilas got was at four, 36-32, in the second, but Chinese-Taipei went into the half up 43-34.
Courtesy of: inquirer.net