FIBA Asia Cup: Lee sizzles as Gilas tops Chinese Taipei
The Lee-thal Weapon has detonated in Wuhan.
Paul Lee had a successful Gilas Pilipinas debut, hitting a game-high 18 points to lead the Filipinos to a 78-64 win over Chinese Taipei in their inaugural game of the 5th FIBA Asia Cup in Wuhan, China.
Playing just three days after Rain or Shine’s painful 89-92 loss to San Mig Super Coffee in Game 5 of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals, Lee showed no signs of fatigue, knocking down four triples, including two in a row that erased a 50-44 Chinese Taipei lead.
Gilas actually got off to a hot start, scoring the team’s first 10 points en route to a 20-10 lead after one period against a youthful Taiwanese team, who fielded an almost completely different from the one that finished fourth in last year’s FIBA Asia Championship in Manila. The only holdover is naturalized player Quincy Davis III, with the rest of the Taiwanese team composed of players 24 years or younger.
Despite their youth, Chinese Taipei showed a lot of heart in the third period where they outscored Gilas 24-11 to grab a 50-47 lead heading into the payoff period. But Lee teamed with Ranidel De Ocampo, Marcus Douthit and Gary David in an 18-4 blast that pushed Gilas ahead 65-54, time down to 4:51.
Chinese Taipei threatened one last time at 67-61 behind a layup by Ying-Chun Chen with 1:46 left, but David sank another triple to put the game away at 70-61 with 1:34 left.
Gilas takes a break on Sunday before tackling Singapore on Monday and Jordan on Tuesday to finish their Group B assignments. Chinese Taipei dropped to 1-1 but remained in the hunt for one of the two slots for the crossover semifinals. The champion of the tournament will automatically get a slot in next year’s FIBA Asia Championship.
While Lee was impressive, the other new faces in Gilas didn’t fare too well. Jay Washington struggled with only two points on 1-of-6 shooting, while cadet pool members Kevin Alas and Garvo Lanete combined for just three points.
Newly-minted PBA Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo also had a rough outing, going scoreless while committing five fouls in seven minutes of action as he had trouble containing Davis in the post.
The scores:
Gilas Pilipinas (78) - Lee 18, David 16, Tenorio 11, De Ocampo 11, Douthit 8, Dillinger 5, Aguilar 4, Lanete 3, Washington 2, Belga 0, Alas 0, Fajardo 0.
Chinese Taipei (64) - Hu 15, Liu 13, Lu 9, Peng 8, Davis 7, H. Chen 5, Lee 3, Chou 2, Chang 0, Lin 0, K. Chen 0.
Quarterscores: 20-10, 36-26, 47-50, 78-64
