Juan Gomez de Liaño and Thirdy Ravena finally made their presence felt as Mighty Sports-Creative Pacific rolled to its third straight win—84-66 win over Tunisia’s ES Rades—in the 31st Dubai International Basketball Championship late Monday at the Shabab Al Ahli Club in the United Arab Emirates.
The former collegiate rivals combined for six triples with Gomez de Liaño of the University of the Philippines posting an impressive four-of-five shooting from the three-point area for 12 points.
Ravena, a former Ateneo superstar, added eight points on two-of-five shooting from the same area aside from providing the intangibles to help Mighty Sports-Creative Pacific post its first blowout win after two tough victories.
The Philippine Basketball Association hopefuls struck hardest in the third quarter when Mighty Sports-Creative Pacific post a 63-54 lead going into the payoff period.
Naturalized Filipino Andray Blatche and World Cup veteran Renaldo Balkman then took charge in the middle of the fourth to finally break the game wide open to the delight of team owners Alexander Wongchuking and Bong Cuevas, and hundreds of wildly-cheering Filipino fans.
“It’s a good win for us,” said Coach Charles Tiu who immediately dedicated the victory to National Basketball Association legend Kobe Bryant who died in a helicopter crash Sunday in California.
“I’m happier this time because two of our local standouts finally showed what they are capable of,” Wongchuking said.
For the third straight game, the 6-foot-10 Blatche tallied a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds on top of five assists, while Balkman also finished with 18 points and six rebounds but turned the ball seven times for the team also backed by Go for Gold, Gatorade and Discovery Primea.
Tiu hopes to use the win as motivation when they battle last year’s runner-up Beirut Sports Club for Group B’s top seeding on Tuesday at 9 p.m. (1 a.m. Wednesday in Manila).
Although already assured of a quarterfinals berth, Mighty Sports-Creative Pacific needs to beat the Lebanese to face the No. 4 team in Group A of the 11-team tournament.
“We need to sweep our group eliminations for better chances in the semifinals,” Wongchuking said.