Taiwan’s national basketball team has punched its ticket to the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 after edging past Guam 85-77 in a nail-biter in the United States territory on the final day of qualifiers Saturday.
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 Saturday to keep its streak of making every Asia Cup since 1985 alive, and it 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 the postgame press conference, Taiwan head coach Charlie Parker said he was confident his team can improve despite having lost five straight qualifying games before Saturday’s win against a Guam team that was undermanned.
“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 actually Guam that came out with more intensity early, and held the lead for the majority of the first half, helped by the hustle of their big men in the paint, but Taiwan pulled back to take a 43-41 lead at halftime.
Taiwan began to find itself in the second half by playing to its strengths, capitalizing on fast break opportunities and downing shots from the perimeter.
Taiwan’s up-tempo style and the play of center Lee Te-wei (???) helped Taiwan build a 64-57 lead with just over three minutes left in the third quarter, and frustration crept its way into the Guam team with unnecessary fouls and turnovers early in the fourth quarter.
But Guam was never far from the five-point margin it needed to stay within to advance, and the hosts pulled to within 82-77 with 36 seconds left in regulation after an alley-oop dunk by center Jonathan Galloway off an assist by forward Tai Wesley and a free throw by Mark Johnson.
With Taiwan’s Asia Cup campaign on the line, Taiwan shooting guard Lin Ting-chien (???) fired back with a clutch pull-up jumper with 20 seconds left 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 made one of two free throws with three seconds left to set the stage for Simon’s last gasp try.
“It was a great team win, especially in the fourth quarter (when Guam scored only 14 points). We really did a good job defending their post player and their shooters,” Lin said.
Lin led all scorers with 26 points, while forward Hu Long-mao (???) added 16 and was 4-5 from three-point range.
Taiwan will join Australia, Bahrain, China, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand, Philippines, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and India in Jakarta in July 2022 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 and we’re so looking forward to it,” he said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel