GILAS Pilipinas just had a bad start and gave up too many fouls that led to a 95-87 reversal at the hands of Chinese Taipei in the opener of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025.
READ: Chinese Taipei shoots down Gilas in stunning FIBA Asia Cup opener
The Filipinos were held to 36-percent shooting in the opening quarter, which the Taiwanese capitalized on to race to a 27-10 spread, a good enough cushion that carried them all the way through to the endgame and left stunned a pro-Gilas crowd at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Philippines managed to recover from a horrible first period and finished the game shooting 47-percent from the field.
But it could only connect 8-of-28 from threes for 28-percent.
And then it committed a lot of fouls that led to Justin Brownlee going to the showers midway through the final frame, while Chris Newsome and Scottie Thompson were also in foul trouble.
The fouls led Chinese Taipei to troop to the line more often and finished the game making 27 of its 35 free throws.
Conversely, Gilas was only 9-of-15 from the foul line.
“We took a lot of ill-advised shots and made a lot of ill-advised fouls,” admitted coach Tim Cone following the loss.
Turnovers also had a huge say on the way the Filipinos played, as they turned the ball over 16 times as compared to four by the Taiwanese.
Cone said the team obviously began to feel the heat the moment it trailed the opposition by a huge margin early on.
“We’re playing from our heels, so we were trying to rush back into the game,” he added.
Red-hot Chinese Taipei
For its part, Chinese Taipei finished at 45-percent shooting from the field, but was huge from the three-point zone where it converted 44-percent of its shots (12-of-27), as Ying-Chun-Chen hit 6-of-8 for a game-high 34 points and Ting-Chien Lin 3-of-7 (14 points).
But Chinese Taipei was clobbered on the boards, 24-48, despite the presence of 7-foot naturalized player Brandon Gilbeck, and had less assists, 12-20.
Still, in all, Chinese Taipei was the better team than Gilas on this night.
“Chinese Taipei continues to play like they did and made the shots that they’re making. And they can be one of the guys that (will) get some medal, without a doubt. They are playing high level basketball,” said Cone.
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