Chinese Taipei head coach Gianluca Tucci made recognized his respect for Gilas Pilipinas following his staff’s 95-87 victory within the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup, however he felt that his squad was merely the higher staff that night time.
“We by no means misplaced the lead of the sport but it surely was not nice. I imply, I think about the Philippines probably the most skilled groups on this competitors,” Tucci stated early Wednesday (Manila time).
“They know one another very nicely, however we’re merely higher than them in executing the performs.”
Chinese language Taipei got here out firing towards the higher-ranked Philippines, hitting six triples within the first half that helped the squad construct a 43-34 lead on the break.
They stored their foot on the gasoline the entire manner with Ying-Chun Chen, Brandon Gilbeck, Robert Hinton, and Ting-Chien Lin all offering the reply to each Gilas Pilipinas comeback try.
Chen, who posted 34 factors on 6-of-8 capturing from three-point territory and tallied two rebounds, two assists, and two steals, agreed with the Italian tactician, saying they acknowledged the weaknesses of Gilas Pilipinas and used these to their benefit.
“I feel coach and the teaching employees gave us a extremely good recreation plan and we executed good on each ends, particularly on defensive finish as we restricted their perimeter offensive gamers,” the 32-year-old sharpshooter stated.
“We additionally attacked their weaknesses on offense. We fought the entire recreation and we rebounded very nicely, despite the fact that we gave up too many offensive rebounds. I wanna give quite a lot of credit score to our teaching employees for a extremely good recreation plan.”
Since Tucci’s arrival in late 2024, Chinese language Taipei has turned its fortunes round.
Within the first spherical of the Asia Cup qualifiers, Chinese language Taipei absorbed a 20-point loss to New Zealand earlier than struggling an enormous 53-point blowout to Gilas Pilipinas on the PhilSports Area to wrap up the primary spherical.
Tucci got here into the image after that and instantly altered the course for the East Asian squad.
They began with a cushty 85-55 rout of Hong Kong, however they didn’t get their payback over New Zealand, struggling an 81-64 defeat of their subsequent assembly.
Chinese language Taipei, although, would shock the Philippines by eking out a 91-84 victory over Gilas last February, which served as their first win towards the Filipinos since 2013.
They proved that that victory was a results of laborious work — not luck — as they secured a second straight victory over Gilas Pilipinas on early Wednesday to go 1-0 in Asia Cup.
“We performed our recreation so we overcame many difficulties throughout the recreation, contemplating the distinction in dimension and athleticism however we by no means misplaced the arrogance,” Tucci stated.
“I recognize the truth that each single participant that I placed on the court docket gave their greatest. We merely deserved to win this recreation.”
—JMB, GMA Built-in Information