MANILA – Mighty Sports-Philippines advanced to the semifinals of the 30th Dubai International Basketball Championship after a 108-94 win over Iran’s Oil Sports Club in the quarterfinals yesterday at the Shabab Al Ahli Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Justin Brownlee top-scored with 26 points, eight boards and seven assists while University of the Philippines Fighting Maroons standout Juan Gomez de Liaño tallied 21 points, three steals, two assists, one board, and one block for the Philippine squad.
Fil-foreigners Jeremiah Gray and Roosevelt Adams had 20 and 19 markers while Randolph Morris finished with double-double 16 points on top of 11 rebounds.
Mighty Sports will face Lebanon’s Al Riyadi in the semis today.
“I like how the boys listened,” Mighty Sports head coach Charles Tiu said. “For once, they followed the game plan. They respected our rules. That’s why we were really able to do a good job defensively.”
The Mighty Sports surged to an early 29-18 lead with Gomez de Liaño converting his shots. It went up to 54-33 late in the second period but the Iraqis answered with 13-3 run to come to within 11.
However, that proved to be the closest for the Iraqis as the Mighty Sports came up with baskets from Brownlee, Gray, Adams and Morris to pad its lead that grew to as many as 23 points, 85-62.
Naturalized guard Demario Mayfield, who flew in right in time for the Mighty Sports game, tallied 26 markers for the losing Oil Sports Club.PN
