Gilas Pilipinas was dealt a rude welcome in its 2025 FIBA Asia Cup opener.
The Nationals opened their group stage campaign on the wrong end after they were stunned by Chinese Taipei, 95-87, early yesterday morning at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
This resulted in the Philippines settling for a 0-1 record in Group D, much like Iraq, while both Chinese Taipei and New Zealand currently sit at the top of their group with a win each following their respective opening games.
Justin Brownlee top-scored for Gilas with 19 points on top of seven rebounds and two assists, but he made an early exit midway through the fourth quarter after fouling out.
The Philippines were made to pay for their poor defense and costly turnovers in the opening period that saw them give up 27 points to Chinese Taipei, forcing them to play catch-up the rest of the way.
“Obviously, we didn’t play a very good game,” acknowledged Gilas head coach Tim Cone.
“[I’m] disappointed with the way we played, and it looked like we were in panic mode.”
“We were outcoached, and it was a disappointing one for my part,” he added.
Kevin Quiambao provided a spark off the bench with 17 markers (3/6 three points), four boards and two dimes, while Dwight Ramos and Scottie Thompson each finished with 16 points.
The Gilas men will now look to bounce back on Thursday, August 7 at 11:00 p.m., but it will be a daunting task to accomplish as they will be rekindling their rivalry with New Zealand in that game.
With the short turnaround, Cone is urging his men to quickly focus on their next assignment.
“There is only one thing that we can do at this point, and that is move on,” he emphasized.
“We can feel bad about this one, cry about it, even, but we’ve got New Zealand coming in two days, so we gotta get ready for them.”
Gilas crawled their way back from a 17-point deficit and got to within two possessions at multiple points in the contest, but Chinese Taipei’s hot shooting allowed them to maintain their cushion.
Adding to the Philippines’ woes was Brownlee’s exit with still over four minutes remaining in the last period.
Quiambao did his best to fill the hole after Brownlee fouled out, scoring most of his points in the last canto. His deuce at the 1:01 mark brought the Philippines to within seven points, 90-83.
Unfortunately for Gilas, Brandon Gilbeck retaliated with a slam in their next possession, while Ying-Chun Chen followed with one of his six three-pointers to complete his 34 points.
The six triples of Chen Y.C. were half of Chinese Taipei’s 12 makes from beyond the arc, and most of his baskets came when Gilas was threatening to close in on Taiwan.
The Philippines’ 26 fouls also proved to be costly, to say the least, as these resulted in Taiwan attempting 35 foul shots while making 27 of them (77.1 percent).
Gilas also failed to take advantage of their rebounding advantage, 48-24. (ABS-CBN News)
CHINESE TAIPEI 95 — Chen Y.C. 34, Gilbeck 16, R. Hinton 14, Lin 14, Gadiaga 5, A. Hinton 4, Tseng 4, Ma 3, Hu 1, Liu 0, Gao 0, Chen K.C. 0.
GILAS PILIPINAS 87 — Brownlee 19, Quiambao 17, Thompson 16, Ramos 16, Edu 8, Oftana 6, Newsome 3, Fajardo 2, Perez 0, Aguilar 0, Tamayo 0.