MANILA, Philippines—Coach Gianluca Tucci knows Chinese Taipei’s win over Gilas Pilipinas to open the 2025 Fiba Asia Cup will go a long way, not only for their campaign in the continental meet but also moving forward for their basketball program.

It was a masterful win for Taipei, which led almost from the get-go and even took an early 17-point advantage.

READ: June Mar Fajardo’s woes add to Gilas’ struggles in Asia Cup loss

“First thing to consider is we never lost our lead. I consider [the] Philippines as one of the most experienced teams in this competition,” said Tucci following their 95-87 win over Gilas.

“They know each other very well, but we were simply better than them at executing our game plan.”

Justin Brownlee scored the game’s first basket on a dunk, but it was all Taipei the rest of the way.

Chinese Taipei’s defense gave Gilas fits as the Filipinos shot measly 28.6 percent from the field, including 8-of-28 from downtown.

READ: Gilas ‘didn’t play a good one’ vs Taipei, admits Tim Cone

On the other end, Gilas also struggled to contain Taipei’s offense led by veteran guard Chen Ying-Chun, who fired 34 points, built on six 3-pointers.

Brownlee’s 19 paced the Philippines, which failed to draw enough contributions from its other key cogs like June Mar Fajardo, Dwight Ramos and CJ Perez.

“We overcame many difficulties during the game, considering such a difference in size and athleticism, especially inside the key.”

“They scored a [lot of] second chance points, but we never lost confidence in our strengths.”