Strong Group-Pilipinas needs to make key adjustments after splitting its first two games in the 45th Jones Cup at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City.

Head coach Charles Tiu said the team is slowly finding its rhythm after bouncing back with a 78-72 victory over Japan on Friday.

Strong Group entered their game against Chinese Taipei Blue with a 1-1 record in Group A, knowing that another strong performance would be crucial to its bid for a third straight Jones Cup title.

“We are slowly finding our groove, and we need these types of games, although I’m hoping we can have a more dominant performance. We also got an earful from Boss Jacob (Lao), and that gave us good motivation to compete harder,” Tiu said.

“We need to get back to playing our SGA brand of basketball and find our identity. It’s a long tournament, but we definitely need to step up to beat Taipei.”

Strong Group must finish among the top two teams in Group A to advance to the semifinals.

After facing the Taiwanese, the Philippine side still has games against Japan, Taiwan and Korean Basketball League club Wonju DB Promy as they fight for one of the two semifinal berths.