The Philippine basketball team Strong Group cruised to a wire-to-wire 93-76 win over Libya’s Al-Nasr for its second win in the 32nd Dubai International Basketball Championship at the Al Nasr Club Hall yesterday.
The Philippine contingent raced to a 24-6 start and never looked back for a 2-0 slate atop the Group A of the nine-team invitationals in the Middle East.
The wards of coach Charles Tiu led by as many as 26 points, highlighted by a searing 17-1 spurt in the third period, en route to a 17-point victory.
Donte Lamnot had 22 points for Al Nasr, which slid to a 1-1 after an 80-66 win over Al Wahda of Syria.
Owned by Jacob Lao, Strong Group was to play Al Wahda at 11 p.m. last night in a bid to move closer to a group sweep with Lebanon’s Dynamo serving as its last assignment.
Strong Group is eyeing to become the second Philippine team to rule the Dubai tilt after Mighty Sports in 2020 before the pandemic.
Mighty then completed a 7-0 sweep of the tourney with Mr. Tiu calling the shots and Mr. Balkman leading the way.