Jones Cup: Mighty Sports quintet overwhelms India

NEW TAIPEI CITY—Philippine representative Mighty Sports Apparels survived an early scare and crushed India, 101-81, to remain unbeaten in the William Jones Cup yesterday at Xinzhuang gym here.

Korean league veteran Dewarick Spencer and former PBA import Al Thornton starred for the team’s fifth straight win as they sparked the team’s furious third-quarter run to rip the game wide open and notch their fifth win in the nine-team tournament.

A 20-4 run gave the Manila team a 68-52 lead and a 11-4 salvo in the fourth period all but took the fight out of the Indians.

That gave coach Bo Perasol the luxury of fielding his homegrown players.

The victory pushed Mighty Sports within two wins of nailing the title trophy and match the feat of Gilas Pilipinas four years ago.

Mighty Sports next clashes with defending champion Iran at 3 p.m. today. With a clean record, the squad can clinch the title with wins over Iran today and Egypt tomorrow.

Iran, which fell to a 3-1 record following a shocking 67-50 loss to the Koreans (3-2) the other day, was playing Taiwan-A at press time.

The scores:

Mighty Sports-PH 101—Thornton 30, Spencer 21, Macklin 14, Singletary 10, N’Diaye 8, Graham 5, Teng 4, Rodriguez 4, Ferrer 3, Brickman 2, Tang 0.

INDIA 81—Amritpal 18, Amjyot 15, Bhullar 15, Arumugam 8, Talwinderjit 8, Philip 8, Sivakumar 4, Pari 3, Pethani 2, Annadurai 0, Bhardwaj 0.

Quarters: 23-27, 48-48, 79-59, 101-81