Renaldo Balkman celebrated his birthday in a very special way Sunday as he helped power Mighty Sports-Go For Gold Philippines to a 94-59 drubbing of Japan for its third straight win in the Jones Cup Invitational at Changhua County Gym in Changhua, Taiwan.
Balkman, who turned 35, had another solid output of 27 points and 12 rebounds for the country’s representative to the annual tournament which is looking to win its second title in four years.
“It’s a good birthday show for Renaldo and he inspired the rest to step up,” said head coach Charles Tiu. “We did not start well but we managed to straighten up things in the second half.”
For the first time in three games, Mighty Sports trailed early, 12-5, but when Balkman and Eugene Phelps started to make their shots inside, they started to pull away and closed out the half with a 38-26 lead.
A slam by Balkman and a three-point shot by Roosevelt Adams to open the third quarter quickly changed the complexion of the game as Mighty padded its lead to 23 points.
Mighty Sports buried four triples in that run, crafty Fil-Am guard Jason Brickman shooting two of those.
Mighty Sports battles winless University of British Columbia-Canada Monday.
Japan fell to 2-1.