MIGHTY Sports Apparel taught a young Iranian squad a neat lesson on Friday as the country’s representative to the Jones Cup scored a dominant 98-72 win at the Changhua gym in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Mighty Sports raced to a 21-12 lead in the first 10 minutes of play as former PBA import Eugene Phelps imposed his will inside to help the Charles Tiu-mentored squad pull away for good.
They practically settled the issue in the third quarter as Fil-Am Mikey Williams buried back-to-back treys for a commanding 69-48 lead.
A triple by Aaron Black and an alley-oop by Hamady Ndiaye extended Mighty Sports’ lead to 87-53 early in the fourth.
That gave Tiu the opportunity to use his other players as they prepare for their crucial showdown with Jordan on Saturday.
Phelps finished with 25 points while Jeremiah Gray and MacKenzien Moore chipped 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Despite the team’s limited preparation, Tiu was satisfied with their performance, saying: “The boys used their individual talents to win this game but I hope we can play much better against Jordan.”
Williams also earned raves with his deadly touch from afar as he finished with 10 points spiked by three triples aside from wowing the fans with his moves. Renaldo Balkman also tallied 10 points.
The team’s godfathers – Willy Ocier of Go For Gold and Alex Wongchuking of Mighty Sports – were also delighted with their win.
The team is looking to win its second title in the annual event that gathered nine teams, including two from the host country.
Enjoying the advantage of having seven imports, Mighty Sports posted a whopping average winning margin of 17.4 points three years ago in completing an eight-game sweep of the championship that mirrored the 1981 feat of the Ron Jacobs-mentored Northern Consolidated.