January 24 ------ STRONG Group cruised to a much more comfortable victory — its fourth in succession — over Lebanese side Beirut Sports Club, 95-73, in the 33rd Dubai International Basketball Championship on Wednesday morning. Playing in the form of his life, Kevin Quiambao unleashed a game-high 20 points and four rebounds for SGA, which moved a win away from sweeping the group phase en route to the knockout round.
Spoiling Strong Group's near-perfect night, however, was an apparent ankle injury obtained by JD Cagulangan at the 9:23-mark of the fourth quarter after drawing contact with Beirut's Sergio El Darwich. Cagulangan, who was having his best game of the tournament to date with 12 points and six assists in roughly 17 minutes of play, no longer saw action for the remainder of the game.
The Philippine side's leading protagonists in McKenzie Moore (19 points, eight dimes, and five boards), Jordan Heading (15 points) and Dwight Howard (11 points and nine rebounds) delivered yet again across the board in another strong team effort. Paving a smooth path for Strong Group’s demolition job is its 32-point first quarter output, with Quiambao firing nine of his 20 points in as early as the the opening ten minutes.
As the shots then began to fall for the likes of Moore, Cagulangan, and Heading, the Philippine side sat nicely on a game-high 27-point edge before Beirut came crawling back in by slicing the lead to 13 with eight minutes of endgame action left. And it was Strong Group's second unit who was able to close out a domineering display capped by a pair of late three-pointers from Francis Escandor to finish the game off. In less than a day's time, an unscathed Strong Group side enters its group phase finale against the only other undefeated team after four games in Group B — Al Ahli Tripoli from Libya (1:15 am Manila time).
The scores:
Strong Group (95) - Quiambao 20, Moore 19, Heading 15, Cagulangan 12, Howard 11, Escandor 6, Blatche 3, Liwag 3, Baltazar 2, Roberson 2, Sanchez 2, Ynot 0.
Beirut Sports Club (73) - El Darwich 28, Haidar 15, Tucker 14, Saleh 8, Rabay 3, Ghudwin 3, Mahmoud 2, Martinez 0, Mechref 0, Abdelmassih 0, Mezher 0, Jarrouj 0.
Quarterscores: 32-20, 58-40, 75-56, 95-73.
Source: spin.ph
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