Mighty Sports-Go For Gold Philippines completed its dominant show in the Jones Cup Sunday by downing Taiwan-B, 81-71, to duplicate its grand sweep of the championship three years ago at the Xinzhuang Gym in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
The country’s representative to the annual club tournament played minus former PBA import Renaldo Balkman but Mighty-GFG still got the job done with little trouble.
Balkman missed the game due to a broken nose suffered during the team’s title-clinching 97-74 win over Taiwan A last Saturday where the team’s captain put on another solid show.
The Taiwanese refused to be intimidated as they engaged the heftier Mighty-GFG squad in several torrid shootouts to the delight of the crowd.
They even outscored the HealthCube-backed Mighty-GFG, 23-19 in the third period.
But when McKenzie Moore and Eugene Phelps decided that enough was enough, they came through with a pair of slam dunks before crafty Fil-Am guard Jason Brickman sealed the team’s 8th win with a beautiful drive, 77-67.
“We missed the energy and power of Renaldo, but it was a good win for the team, everybody contributed,” said Mighty head coach Charles Tiu.
Counting its 8-0 sweep three years ago, Mighty Sports extended its amazing winning streak to 16 games.
More than that, it gave the country its sixth title since the tournament began in 1977.
“As they say, it’s sweeter the second time around. The boys really played well,” said Mighty Sports owner Alex Wongchuking. “We’re also happy because we gave our kababayans here a real entertainment.”
The Ron Jacobs-mentored Northern Consolidated ruled the 1981 and 1986 editions, the Philippine Centennial team won in 1998, Gilas Pilipinas reigned supreme in 2012 and Mighty bagged its first Jones Cup in 2016.
The scores:
Mighty Sports 81—Phelps 24, Moore 16, Yeo 11, Williams 7, N’Diaye 7, Adams 6, Brickman 4, Gray 2, Black 2, Wongchuking 2.
Chinese Taipei White 71—Wu, Y. 15, Lin, K. 10, Chou 10, Wu, C. 9, Lin, T. 8, Tseng 7, Chen 6, Hsieh 2, Sun 2, Huang 2, Lai 0, Su 0.
Quarters: 15-16, 40-32, 59-55, 81-71.
