GILAS Pilipinas goes for a sweep of its opening window campaign in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers as it battles Chinese Taipei at home on Sunday.
A huge crowd is expected at the Philsports Arena as the national team plays before Filipino fans for rhe first time since its historic gold medal feat in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China last year.
The Filipinos go to the 7 p.m. match against the Taiwanese fresh from a 94-64 conquest of Hong Kong Thursday night at the Tsuen Wan Stadium.
But while coming off a convincing win, coach Tim Cone wasn't exactly happy with the way the team start against Hong Kong. Gilas just led 41-37 at halftime.
"I thought we came out a little tentative," he admitted. But Justin Brownlee and Kai Sotto caught fire in the second half and instigated a 10-0 blast to give Gilas a 63-45 lead.
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The Filipinos outscored the opposition, 30-9, in the third quarter to pull away for good.
"But in the second half, I thought we kind of relaxed a little bit, played better, defended better, and got a little bit of a run," added Cone. Gilas played minus injured big men June Mar Fajardo and AJ Edu and is expected to do the same against Chinese Taipei.
The Taiwanese arrived in the country coming off an 86-69 loss to New Zealand at home. Cheng Liu finished with 20 points in a losing cause for Chinese Taipei. (RG)
