TAIPEI - Chinese Taipei sought payback. Gilas Pilipinas instead gave the home team another heartbreak to mend.
After defending their home court at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last November, the Nationals came here to conquer the Taiwanese, 93-71, in their home turf at the Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium here Friday.
Gilas thus improved its record to 4-1 at second place in Group B heading to its the keenly awaited rematch with Australia in the first round of the FIBA World Cup qualifiers at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan Monday.
The Nationals shrugged off a sluggish start, seizing control late in the second quarter and sustaining the pace en route to a repeat of their 90-83 victory in their initial tiff in Manila.
They caught up at 33-all on a layup by Terrence Romeo with 4:08 left in the first half, took the lead for the first time at 37-36 on back-to-back baskets by Andray Blatche and slowly built a 15-point spread at 62-47.
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Team Phl held onto the lead to the finish, and left Team Taipei and its fans in blue.
As in the previous Phl-Taipei match, June Mar Fajardo led the scoring parade for the Filipinos with 22 points.
Blatche came through with a double-double game with 13 points and 12 rebounds that went with five assists and three steals while playmakers Romeo and Jayson Castro combined for 29 markers and 10 assists.
The Filipinos had their anxious moments early on with the Taiwanese enjoying the early initiatives behind the torrid shooting of snipers Yi-Hsiang Chou, Cheng-Ju Lu, Chin-Min Yang and Wen-Ting Tseng.
Taipei made seven three-pointers as against four by Gilas in the first half.
But there's no stopping the Filipinos as they got into the groove.(SB)
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