Mighty Sports books quarters, beats UAE

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Mighty Sports-Philippines gained a quarterfinals slot after rolling past the United Arab Emirates national team, 86-78, in the 30th Dubai International Basketball Championships Saturday at Shabab Al Ahli gymnasium in Dubai.

Justin Brownlee, Randolph Morris and Roosevelt Adams carried much of the load for Mighty Sports after combining for 56 points.

Despite the victory, however, head coach Charles Tiu was far from pleased with how his team performed after it blew a 20-point lead.

“What’s good is that we won and I expected us to win this game. But honestly this is not the level of the tournament,” Tiu said. “They are the national team and they actually gave us a tough test today.

“Actually I am not happy with how the game turned out. If we play this [kind of] game the next few days, we’re going to lose. We might not make it past the quarterfinals,” he added.

Brownlee notched a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds, Morris scored a game-high 20 points while the hot-shooting Adams was a spark off the bench with 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field in only 18 minutes.

“I like the way Adams played today. He was solid defensively. He played excellent played so hard, hustle so hard,” he said.

With the win, Mighty Sports has already surpassed its performance the last time it participated in the tournament two years ago when the team managed to win just one game.

Mighty Sports improved to 2-0 after dumping American University, 87-58, to kick off its campaign last Thursday.

The Philippine side also drew significant contributions from guards Jason Brickman and Juan Gomez Di Liaño, who provided stability in the backcourt.

“He (Brickman) is just great finding guys. That pass to Brownlee was really amazing,” said Tiu.

Mighty Sports goes for a 3-0 record against a formidable Homenetmen-Lebanon side early Monday morning (Manila time).