June Mar Fajardo (with ball) and Gilas Pilipinas are coming off a loss to Chinese language Taipei. –FIBA.BASKETBALL
The true video games are lastly right here for Gilas Pilipinas, with Chinese language-Taipei presenting an early stern take a look at because the Nationals kick off their Fiba Asia Cup marketing campaign in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“We now have a battle on our arms. However we’ll be prepared,” coach Tim Cone mentioned because the Philippines takes on its Taiwanese counterparts at 9 p.m. on Tuesday native time (2 a.m. Wednesday, Manila time) at King Abdullah Sports activities Metropolis.
Gilas is predicted to face a gifted Chinese language-Taipei squad that can come into the match with some psychological edge after successful their earlier match final February on the Asia Cup Qualifiers in Taipei.
One cause would be the presence of brothers Robert and Adam Hinton, who’re taking part in for Harvard and Cornell, respectively, within the US NCAA Division I. The 2, primarily based in California, are eligible to play as locals with their mom being from Taiwan.
“The Hinton brothers are making an influence on that staff, so that they positively have the personnel,” mentioned Cone, including that “it wasn’t a fluke that they beat us, so we’ve got to be ready for them.”
Chinese language-Taipei additionally has Mohammad Al Bachir Gadiaga as a neighborhood and naturalized participant in Brandon Gilbeck.
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The Taiwanese facet is coming off a second-place end in its dwelling event, the William Jones Cup, which was received by Philippine membership Robust Group Athletics. It was additionally SGA that handed Chinese language-Taipei its solely loss in that week-long competitors.
And primarily based from what Cone noticed in these video games, Chinese language-Taipei will likely be a tricky cookie to grind.
“They really dominated the Jones Cup. They misplaced to Robust and that’s the one recreation Taiwan misplaced and so they blew a bunch of groups there,” mentioned Cone.
For Gilas to make up for the February setback, it’ll want the likes of foremost guys to step up and maximize on the preparation it had prior to now weeks, together with the time the Nationals had in Jeddah.
Gilas arrived in Saudi Arabia final Thursday and instantly buckled right down to work whereas additionally beating Jordan, 75-61, in a tuneup match.
The Asia Cup opener can even see if June Mar Fajardo and Calvin Oftana are wholesome sufficient to be at their finest, particularly after coping with accidents that restricted their participation in practices.
After all, the essential items are naturalized participant Justin Brownlee, Dwight Ramos and Scottie Thompson, Gilas veterans who will lead the squad’s marketing campaign in Group D, which additionally contains New Zealand and Iraq.
New Zealand is seen as maybe the favourite to prime the group whereas Iraq will seemingly function a thriller.
“New Zealand is clearly going to be robust, it doesn’t matter what staff they ship,” Cone mentioned. “Then we don’t know numerous Iraq but, however we’re discovering it out as we go alongside. However the outdated saying is, we’ll take it one recreation at a time at this level, and that’s really the rationale you say it as a result of it’s true.
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“However proper now, our minds now could be on Taiwan. We bought to get via them,” he added. INQ
