GILAS PILIPINAS OUTCLASSES CHINESE TAIPEI IN AC QUALIFYING

Gilas Pilipinas notched its second straight win by blasting Chinese Taipei by big margin of 53 points, 106-53, in the FIBA Asia Cup qualifying watched by cheerful hometown crowd that include Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Richard Bachmann, Executive Director Paolo Francisco Tatad and Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Al Panlillo at Philsports Arena over the weekend

The morale is high and their fighting spirit keep ablaze for entire 40 minutes, the Filipinos subjected the Taiwanese with series of baskets from all fronts with towering Kai Sotto and Justine Brownlee and able assistance by their teammates to reaffirmed their unquestioned supremacy of Chinese Taipei.

Brownlee paced Gilas Pilipinas with 26 points and 12 rebounds and Sotto 18 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and three block shots to typify the Filipinos dominance of the Taiwanese.

Gilas Pilipinas next game against New Zealand is on November 21. Before that they will comete in the FIBA Olympic qualifying in Riga, Latvia this July.

FIBA Asia Image

“Well, I’m really elated and satisfied to their performance against Chinese Taipei. They played with vigor, energized and with lots of intensity,” said coach Tim Cone after the host team crippled Chinese Taipei with a paralizing shots from all corners with Brownlee and Sotto orchestrating the torrid attacked right from the opening whistled.

Sotto, the tallest player at 7-foot-3 in the four teams Pool B qualifying, and the 34 years old Brownlee from Georgia, Atlanta played like Mutt and Jeff combination.

Coach Tim Cone temporarily replaced Sotto and give the 7-foot-3 behemoth the much-needed rest with Gilas Pilipinas comfortably ahead 80-38 in the third quarter.

Sotto made double-double 13 points and 15 rebounds aside from one block shot and one steal in manhandling Hong Kong, 94-64, before a horrified Hong Kong crowd.

Sotto played in Japan B-League as import before Coach Tim Cone commissioned his services replacing the injured 6-foot-10 June Mar Fajardo to give Gilas to victory and the towering 7-foot-3 giant lived up to expectation to the cheer of the hometown crowd.

FaJardo joined the team to give morale support to his teammates against Chinese Taipei.

Philippine beat Chinese Taipei three times when the tournament was known before Asian Basketball Confederation before it was renamed FIBA Asia Cup where BAP president Gonzalo “Lito” Puyat became FIBA president for two terms.

Tim had a long resume of achievement here and abroad. He is the winningest coach in the PBA with 25 titles, two grandslam in 1996 and 2014. He steered the Philippines to the 1998 William Jones and recently guided the team to the gold in the Southeast Asian Games and Asian Games.

Twenty-four teams led by powerhouse China divided into six groups are competing in the FIBA Asia qualifying.