SUPER COUP
Our Supercats to take on Chinese Taipei
The Geelong Supercats will play Chinese Taipei in Geelong later this month as part of the national team’s preparations for the Asian Games.
THE Geelong Supercats will play a one-off exhibition game against the Chinese Taipei national men’s team at the end of the month.
In a major coup for basketball fans in the region, the match will be played in Geelong at the Arena on Tuesday, July 31.
Chinese Taipei is the 34th ranked team in the world and is using the match to help pre- pare for the Asian Games, which start in August.
As part of its trip Down Under, it will also play matches against the Melbourne Tigers, Diamond Valley, the SEABL All Stars and NBL side Melbourne United.
Basketball Geelong chief executive Dean Anglin said it was a testament to how well the Supercats were travelling a national team would look to use them to help try to improve their international standard before future World Cup qualifying windows.
“We’ve been working on this for a number of months” Anglin said.
“Our men’s team is in red hot form right now and it will be great to see the boys test themselves against a team that recently played the Boomers.
“Earlier in the year Chinese Taipei played the Boomers at Margaret Court Arena in front of a sellout crowd and we’ve seen great crowds at the Arena in recent weeks, so we are hopeful of packing out the house and really putting on a show.”
The team that fronted up against the Boomers looks set to make its way to Geelong, with Chinese Taipei focusing on putting its best players out on court together to build cohesion and continuity.
Ying-chun Chen starred for his team when they played the Boomers in February, finishing with 22 points, while Quincy Spencer Davis III, a naturalised member of the Chinese Taipei side, registered 11 rebounds, and will present a sizeable challenge for the Supercats big men.
It is understood forwards Yi-hsiang Chou, Long-mao Hu and Cheng Liu will also make the trip to Geelong.
Chinese Taipei made an early exit from the 2019 FIBA World Cup qualifiers, finishing last in its group with one win from its six games.
Tickets for the match will be available to the general public from Wednesday and will be available from the Supercats website. MEANWHILE, both Supercats teams will be in action tonight at the Arena with a SEABL double-header against Kilsyth.
The Lady Supercats hit the court from 5pm and the men are on from 7pm.