SGA-Pilipinas beats Taipei-B 7-0 for Jones Cup card, sets up virtual gold medal match against Taipei-A

Chris McCullough, Kiefer Ravena, RJ Abarrientos Shine Again in Strong Group-Pilipinas goes 7-0 into the virtual Jones Cup gold medal match after defeating Team B of Chinese Taipei

MANILA, Philippines – It’s seventh heaven for Strong Group-Pilipinas after it extended its 2024 William Jones Cup record to 7-0 with a 96-70 win over Chinese Taipei-White in Taiwan on Saturday, July 20.

Super import Chris McCullough earned his money at the free throw line, scoring 25 points on 10 of 13 free throws, while veteran guard Kiefer Ravena rocked the bench with 14 points.

New Ginebra rookie guard RJ Abarrientos continued his overseas audition with 13 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds as Strong Group takes on Chinese Taipei-Blue in the virtual gold medal match on Sunday, July 21 at 7:00 PM ET.

Despite missing the services of naturalized Filipino midfielder Ange Kouame, import Tajuan Agee and Gilas Pilipinas ace Rhenz Abando, the super-strong Strong Group hardly noticed any personnel problems after setting the tone with a 20-5 win from the first minute.

The Taiwanese newcomer could not easily turn the game around from that moment on. Strong Group provided a margin of no less than 31 points (94-63) with a shot by Abarrientos and the game was virtually decided in the second half of the fourth quarter.

Filipino-American DJ Fenner added 12 points and 5 rebounds in the easy win, supported by 11 points from Jordan Heading and 6 points and 10 rebounds from Geo Chiu.

Chang Chia He was the best player in the loss with 16 points, 7-of-7 and 2-of-2 from three, while Lin Yan Ting had 12 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists to move Chinese Taipei-White to a 3-4 record in the week-long daily tournament.

The Scores

Strong group-Pilipinas 96 – McCullough 25, Ravena 14, Abarrientos 13, Fenner 12, Heading 11, Chiu 6, Ynot 6, Manalili 4, Ildefonso 3, Liwag 2.

Chinese Taipei-White 70 – Chang 16, Lin 12, Mbaye 8, Kuan 8, Chen Y. 8, Chen L. 6, Yu A. 4, Wu 3, Hu 2, Yu F. 2, Chiang 1, Wang 0.

Quarters: 30-15, 57-31, 80-54, 96-70.

– Rappler.com