Basketball: Japan Women Triumph Over Taiwan in Gaines’ Debut as Coach

In a women's basketball exhibition match on Saturday, Japan easily defeated Taiwan with a score of 95-42, marking their debut game under the leadership of their new head coach, Corey Gaines.

At the Toyoda Gosei Memorial Gymnasium in Aichi Prefecture, Sarah Nakamura Miller topped the scoring for Japan with 12 points, making four of her seven attempts from beyond the arc. Anri Hoshi contributed 11 points, followed by Kokoro Tanaka who added 10 points.

At halftime, Japan was leading 55-18, thanks to outstanding performances from Tanaka and Norika Konno. The world’s ninth-ranked team then went on to easily secure the win against Taiwan, which is ranked 39th globally.

The rematch between the two squads will take place at the same location on Sunday.

Since 2022, the 60-year-old Gaines, who has a Japanese grandmother, served as the associate head coach for the men’s team under Tom Hovasse. He contributed to their performance at both the 2023 World Cup held in Okinawa and during last year's Olympic Games in Paris.

In 2016-2017, Gaines served as the advisor for the Japanese women's team. He took over from Toru Onzuka in January following their performance in the preliminaries of the Paris Games, where they lost all three matches. The previous year, Japan secured the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics under Coach Hovasse.

Before leading the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA to a title in 2009, Gaines was part of multiple NBA franchises such as the New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia 76ers.