Mighty Sports blasts Egypt, guns for sweep in Jones Cup

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

TAIPEI – Mighty Sports Apparels lined itself up for a plausible perfect title run as it rolled past FIBA Afro five-time champion Egypt, 80-61, in the penultimate play date of the 38th William Jones Cup basketball tournament at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium here yesterday.

Assured of the crown before the game, the Phl Mighty quintet nonetheless buckled down to work and stretched its streak to seven games following earlier wins over Chinese Taipei A, Korea, Sacramento State, Japan, India and deposed titlist Iran.

Mighty Sports, backed by Scratch It Pera-Pera Agad-Agad! and Symarom, goes for a sweet sweep of the nine-team, one-round-robin against Chinese Taipei B at 5 p.m. today.

Earlier, Iran ended a three-game slide, repulsing Japan, 73-65, to stay in contention for a podium finish in the annual international invitational tourney it has ruled five times in the last seven years.

At press time, Iran (4-3) and Korea (4-3) were tied at third place behind Mighty Sports ( 7- 0) and Chinese Taipei A (4-2). The scores: Mighty Sports 80 – Thornton 20, Spencer 19, Singletary 11, Ferrer 9, Brickman 8, N’Diaye 7, Macklin 6, Teng 0, Rodriguez 0, Salvacion 0.

Egypt 61 – Abdelhalim 24, Tawfik 11, Khalifa 8, Aboushousha 8, Nasar 4, Baraka 2, Elmekawi 2, Abdallah 2, Elsanadi 0, Mohamed 0.

Quarterscores: 19-15, 35-28, 52-47, 80-61