Taiwan win over Team Pilipinas (86-77) with Photos and Highlights Video

Powerade-Team Pilipinas found itself at the losing end for the second straight game in the 31st William Jones Cup tournament, bowing to host Chinese-Taipei, 86-77, Sunday at the Hsinchuang gymnasium in Taipei.

The Nationals rallied back from 16 points down in the second half, and leveled thrice in the final six minutes – 68-all on a vicious slam by Japeth Aguilar, 70-all on Wynne Arboleda’s driving layup, and 72-all on free throws by Kerby Raymundo with 3:01 to go.

However, two successive traveling violations called on them after Arboleda’s basket denied them go-ahead opportunities and the hosts regained their touch following the last deadlock.

Taiwan, which scored the game’s first 12 points and was up 30-14 after 10 minutes, strung nine straight points from there, highlighted by a corner 3-point shot from Yang Chin-Min to seal its second win and the Philippines’ second consecutive defeat in the nine-team competition.

The Nationals got routed by Jordan on opening day, 90-59.

A 12-0 run keyed by 3-pointers from James Yap and Cyrus Baguio brought the Nationals within 62-60 with 2:04 left in the third quarter but they couldn’t muster the needed energy to get past the gritty Taiwanese.

Two missed foul shots by Baguio down the stretch slammed the door on Team RP.

Seemingly unable to defend in the first half, the RP team trailed early as the host riddled the Nationals’ shabby resistance with 11 triples.

But RP came in firing for the third quarter, and a renewed defensive effort helped chip away at the double-digit deficit.

Again, however, it was the RP team's abysmal shooting that did it in as the Nationals missed 18 three-point shots overall.


The Scores:

Chinese-Taipei A 86 – Tien 21, Yang C.M. 14, Yang C.Y. 14, Chang 8, Lee 8, Chen 8, Chen S.N. 7, Lin 2, Hsu 2, Wu 2.

Team Pilipinas 77 – Miller 15, Raymundo 12, Yap 12, Santos 10, Aguilar 10, Baguio 7, Arboleda 4, De Ocampo 2, Norwood 2, Dillinger 2, Taulava 1, Thoss 0.

Quarterscores: 30-14; 53-38; 65-62; 86-77