3 weeks ago
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Olmin Leyba - The Philippine Star
February 21, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Gilas Pilipinas rammed into a Chinese-Taipei squad brimming with new weapons and playing with a strong sense of urgency, and fell for the first time in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
The Nationals yielded a 91-84 loss to the hot-shooting Taiwanese as they saw their spotless 4-0 card stained at the resumption of Group B action last night at the Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium.
The ambush enabled retooled Chinese-Taipei to avenge their 106-53 beating in the second window last November on the road and defeat the Filipinos for the first time since an 84-79 verdict back in 2013 in the FIBA Asia Championship group play in Manila.
More importantly, the third-running Taiwanese improved to 2-3 and kept themselves in play for a spot in the final qualifying tournament for the Continental meet set in August in Saudi Arabia.
Justin Brownlee went hard at work for the Asia Cup-qualified Philippines, scattering 39 markers spiked by an 8-of-11 three-point shooting, eight assists and six rebounds.
Brownlee kept the Nationals afloat after Chinese-Taipei buried them to a 12-point hole in the first two minutes of the fourth canto. But JB had an errant transition pass and a missed short-range shot in the endgame that the home squad exploited to set up Chun Hsiang Liu for the triple that made it an 89-84 contest.
Seven-foot Brandon Gilbeck then put the finishing touches to the upset with a block on a driving Dwight Ramos and a dunk off a Cheng Liu missed three-pointer.
Gilbeck, who rode the bench in the first half after committing two early fouls, finished with eight points, eight rebounds and five shot blocks.
Ting-Chen Lin and Mohammad Al Bachir Gadiaga rifled in 21 apiece, Chun Hsiang Lu shot 18 and Chien-Hao Ma chipped in 14 to take the scoring cudgels for the Taiwanese. The quartet accounted for a combined 14 of 15 three-pointers the hosts dropped on Gilas.
Ramos, with 15, and AJ Edu, with 10 plus six boards, were the only other Gilas scorers in double digits.
The troops of coach Tim Cone have little time to dwell on this loss with the grudge match against fellow Asia Cup-bound New Zealand set Sunday in Auckland.
The Tall Blacks matched the Pinoy dribblers’ 4-1 record after demolishing host Hong Kong in the other game, 92-51.
