Mighty Sports hurdles Japan, wrests solo lead

Games today 1 p.m. – India vs Phl-Mighty Sports 3 p.m. – Egypt vs Sacramento State 5 p.m. – Taipei B vs Japan 7 p.m. – Iran vs Taipei A

TAIPEI – Mighty Sports Apparbreezed through an 87-66 win over Japan to take the solo lead halfway through the 38th Jones Cup international basketball tournament at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium here last night.

In what’s easily their most impressive game in the tourney so far, the Mighty cagers tore the Japanese apart right in the early going and rampaged to a fourth straight win following earlier victories over Chinese Taipei A, Korea and Sacramento State.

Coach Bo Perasol and his troops chalked up their biggest win before a sizeable Mighty Sports throng that flew in from Manila hours before the game. Among those in the gallery were former PBA stars Kenneth Duremdes and Alvin Teng with wife Susan cheering for their son Jeric.

The Phl side, backed by Scratch It Pera-Pera Agad-Agad! and Symarom, emerged the lone unbeaten squad after South Korea, playing menacingly through 40 minutes, stopped titleholder Iran, 67-50, earlier in the day.

“We made a conscious effort to really play big tonight to avenge a 30-point loss to Iran here last year,” said gunner Kim Sun-hyung, top scoring for the Koreans with 15 points on 3-of-6 three-point shooting and 3-of-4 two-point clip.

The Koreans improved to 3-2 at third place while relegating the Iranians down to second at 3-1. Iran competes in the Jones Cup with only five carryovers – Adnan Doraghi, Sajjad Mashayekhi, Aslani Farid, Behnam Yachhali and Sedighi Amir – from their team to the recent FIBA OQT in Turin, Italy.

Team Mighty Sports, meanwhile, crushed a young Japanese team with an average age of 25. Coach Kenji Hasegawa didn’t bring a single player from their team that placed fourth in the 2015 Changsha Asian joust then competed in the Belgrade FIBA Olympic qualifier.

Zach Graham, Dewarick Spencer, Al Thornton, Hamady N’Diaye and Jason Brickman got the team to a swashbuckling start and Mike Singletary, Vernon Macklin, Sunday Salvacion, TY Tang, Jeric Teng and Larry Rodriguez helped out coming off the bench, giving the injury-hit Troy Gillenwater more time to rest.

“The important thing was we’re able to give our players valuable rest,” said Perasol of the one-sided contest allowing him to distribute the minutes to six imports and six local players.

Graham, N’Diaye, Singletary and Spencer all produced all-around numbers while Tang stood out among the locals with four points, three rebounds, three assists and one steal.

“We’ve jelled even with a few practices. We’re able to adjust well on the court.We know winning is not going to happen if we don’t play as a team,” said Tang, coming back from retirement to help Mighty Sports in its campaign to bring back home the Jones Cup crown.

Meanwhile, Perasol shrugged off Korea’s win over Iran, saying: “We came here to beat any team we go up against. We’ll take care of our business. If it happens that Iran loses to any team, it happens.” The scores: Mighty Sports 87 – Graham 15, Spencer 14, Macklin 11, Thornton 11, Singletary 9, N’Diaye 8, Salvacion 5, Tang 4, Teng 4, Rodriguez 4, Brickman 2, Avenido 0.

Japan 66 – Nishikawa 15, Shinoyama 14, Mitsuhara 10, Nagayoshi 8, Kumagae 6, Harimoto 5, Endo 5, Fuji 2, Nomoto 1, Togashi 0, Karino 0.

Quarterscores: 28-12, 50-21, 70-47, 87-66