Taiwan defeated by the Philippines at Basketball World Cup qualifier

菲律賓隊在世界杯預選賽中擊敗台灣隊

Taiwan fell to the Philippines at the Asian qualifier for the Basketball World Cup


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Taiwan's squad faded after a strong start to fall to the Philippines 90-83 at the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers Monday (Nov. 27) evening in Quezon City, the Philippines.

Playing at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City last night, Taiwan's naturalized player Quincy Davis III, who ended up with 20 points and nine rebounds, helped lead Taiwan to a 17-3 lead in the opening quarter.

However, a steal by Calvin Abueva lead to a layup by Kiefer Ravena, to give the Philippines their first lead of 28-27 at the 7:12 mark of the second quarter.

Team Taiwan stormed back with a three pointer by Jhen Huang to give them a 37-36 lead with 3:24 left in the half.
The Philippine squad countered with a 44-42 lead by halftime. The Philippines then managed to pull ahead with an 8-0 run in the third quarter.

Taiwan then fought back to tie the game at 58-all with 2:54 left in the third quarter. By the end of the quarter, the Filipinos had a slight edge of 65-64.


Anthony Davis (right) going up for hook shot. (CNA image)

The Philippines Matthew Wright shot a pair of threes and a bucket by Calvin Abueva extended their lead over Taiwan to 73-66, but the scrappy Taiwan squad had a run of their own with free throws by Chou Yi-hsiang and a lay-up by Chiang Yu-an lay-up closing the margin to 73-72.

However, in the final minutes of the game the Filipino squad pulled away from their Taiwanese counterparts by outscoring them 17-11 to seal the game.

Jayson Castro lead the Philippines team with 20 points and June Mar Fajardo had a national team career-high of 17 points.

In addition to Davis' 20 points, Chou chipped in 17 points and Jhen Huang added 16 for Taiwan's team.

Monday's defeat for Taiwan followed a 104-66 loss to Australia on Friday. The Philippines, on the other hand, is unbeaten so far.

The top six Asian teams from the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification (Asia) will go on to participate in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, which is slated for Aug. 31 to Sept. 15 in China.

Taiwan next group competition qualifier will be against Japan on Feb. 22, 2018.