Taiwan’s national basketball team yesterday punched their ticket to the FIBA Asia Cup after edging Guam 85-77 in the US territory on the final day of qualifiers.
After losing the opener of the two-game series against Guam 77-72 on Thursday, Taiwan had to defeat the underdogs by at least six points to keep their streak of making every Asia Cup since 1985 alive, and they did so, barely.
A five-point victory would have sent the series into overtime, but Guam shooting guard Takumi Simon left a buzzer-beating three-point shot from the corner just short of the rim, allowing Taiwan to escape with the series win.
At a post-game news conference, Taiwan head coach Charlie Parker said he was confident that his team can improve, despite having lost five straight qualifying games before the win against an undermanned Guam team.
“I know after losses there was a lot of criticism going both ways, but our whole theme was we got next, which basically means that Taiwan had great success in the Olympics and after the Olympics is over we wanted to prove that we had the next opportunity to make people from Taiwan proud,” Parker said.
It was Guam who came out with more intensity early in the game. They held the lead for the majority of the first half.
However, Taiwan pulled back to take a 43-41 lead at halftime.
Taiwan played to their strengths in the second half, capitalizing on fast-breaks and downing shots from the perimeter.
Taiwan’s up-tempo style and the play of center Lee Te-wei helped them to build a 64-57 lead with just over three minutes left in the third quarter, while frustration crept its way into the Guam team with unnecessary fouls and turnovers early in the fourth quarter.
However, the hosts were never far from the five-point margin they needed to stay within to advance, pulling themselves to 82-77 with 36 seconds left in regulation time after an alley-oop dunk by center Jonathan Galloway off an assist by forward Tai Wesley and a free throw by Mark Johnson.
Taiwan shooting guard Lin Ting-chien fired back with a clutch pull-up jumper with 20 seconds remaining to open up an 84-77 lead.
An errant alley-oop pass by Wesley in the final seconds gave the ball back to Taiwan, and Lin Ting-chien made one of two free throws with three seconds left to set the stage for Simon’s attempt.
Lin Ting-chien led all scorers with 26 points, while forward Hu Long-mao added 16 and was four from five from three-point range.
“It was a great team win, especially in the fourth quarter,” when Guam scored only 14 points, Lin Ting-chien said. “We really did a good job defending their post player and their shooters.”
Taiwan are to join Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, New Zealand, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Syria in Jakarta in July next year for the Asia Cup final, and Parker had no illusions about Taiwan’s prospects.
“It’s going to be a challenge from here on in. I think we probably need to get an import ... to kind of protect the paint, but it’s going to be great competition,” he said.
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