Gilas Pilipinas Girls suffered its second straight loss following a disappointing 48-74 setback to Chinese Taipei in the FIBA U16 Women’s Asia Cup at the Arena Seremban in Malaysia last Tuesday.

Chang Yu Tung scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds as the Taiwanese picked up their second straight win at the expense of the Gilas Girls.

A jumper from Chang with 37 seconds left in the first quarter capped a 13-0 run for Chinese Taipei to dictate the tempo the rest of the way.

As if that wasn’t enough, Chang Hsun Wen drained a jump shot with 1:56 left in the fourth quarter to give the Taiwanese their biggest lead of the game at 26 points, 74-48, to seal the easy victory.

Chinese Taipei took advantage of the Gilas Girls’ 33 turnovers and scored 28 easy points and 12 fastbreak points.

Lin Niña Zhen and Hisieh Ai Tung both scored 12 points each while Tsai Yu Yne dropped 11 points coming off the bench for the Taiwanese, who opened their campaign with a razor-thin 88-83 win over South Korea on Monday.

Ella Smith, on the other hand, dropped a double-double game of 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Philippines, which failed to bounce back from an 81-point massacre by Australia, 42-123, also on Monday.

With the loss, the Philippines is now in a must-win situation as it takes on South Korea on Wednesday at 2 p.m. (Manila time).

With both the Gilas Girls and the South Koreans dropping their first two assignments, this match is expected to go down the wire as they vie for a slot in the playoff for the semifinal.