THE Strong Group showed better chemistry this time and routed Al Nasr of Libya, 93-76, to stay perfect in the 32nd Dubai International Basketball Championship at the Al-Nasr Club Hall Sunday.
Putting its “ugly win” over the United Arab Emirates behind, the country’s representative to the nine-team tournament used a strong a start and a stronger finish to win convincingly before another good-sized Filipino crowd.
“We played much better this time and my locals also did well,” Strong Group coach Charles Tiu said. “BJ [Andrade] started it all.” Three early triples from Andrade sparked an explosive opening frame onslaught before imports Renaldo Balkman and Shabazz Muhammad followed suit, erecting an early 19-point lead at 35-16 for the team owned by Jacob Lao.
Al Nasr, refusing to go into the night silently, cut the lead to nine points multiple times in the second and third quarters but the team backed by Mighty Sports and Acrocity simply had answers to every run—the last an 11-0 blitz to close out the third quarter with a 23-point lead, 81-58.
Muhammad dropped 13 of his 26 points in the first quarter alone to go with his seven rebounds, while Balkman finished with 18 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Sedrick Barefield added 14, Justine Baltazar wound up with 10 while Andrade and Kevin Quiambao chipped in nine points apiece in the game that was practically over at the end of three quarters with Strong Group even stretching its lead to 26 points midway through the final period.
Donte Lammot paced Al Nasr with 22 points and five rebounds while Michael Babatond added 14.
Strong Group, which leads Group A, takes a one-day off before plunging back to action on Tuesday against Syrian team Al Wahda.