It wasn’t as bad as their performance in the opener, but Powerade Team Pilipinas suffered another setback in its second game in the 31st William Jones Cup in Taipei. The host’s Team A survived a second-half charge by our boys to come away with an 86-77 victory.

The Nationals’ shooting woes continued to haunt them at the start of the game, as the Taiwanese opened with a 12-0 run to begin the game and kept the Filipinos at bay for most of the first half. But Powerade Team Pilipinas caught fire in the second half, cutting the lead to three by the end of the third quarter.

The rally carried on through the fourth quarter, with the Nationals tying the game at 70-all with about five minutes to play. Chinese Taipei, though, got its second wind and ended the game with a 16-7 run to hand the Philippines its second straight loss.

It was still frustrating to watch them fumble through the game (even more so over choppy Internet live streaming), but at least there are signs of the team coming together. Japeth Aguilar, Jared Dillinger, and Cyrus Baguio led the charge during the second-half rally, bringing in copious amounts of energy to spark the team, although the offense, to borrow my joke from the PBA finals series, is still uglier than Dorian Pena.

Sure, the team hasn’t been shooting well, but I’m more bothered by the point guard play, which has been ATROCIOUS on both ends of the floor (I’m looking at you, Willie Miller). I’m worried because while Ryan Reyes and Jayjay Helterbrand are expected back for the Fiba-Asia tournament, who knows what kind of shape they’ll be in? I’m still waiting for Guiao to at least try putting out lineup with either Gabe Norwood or Jared Dillinger, both of whom saw extensive minutes at backup point guard for their PBA teams, quarterbacking the team.