Mighty faces Taiwan in Jones Cup opener

TAIPEI – A Chinese Taipei team aching to redeem itself from a dismal showing in the last FIBA Asia Championship is Mighty Sports Apparels’ dangerous opening assignment tonight in the 2016 William Jones Cup international basketball tournament at the Xinchuang Gymnasium here.

The Taiwanese are on the comeback trail after a poor 13th place finish out of 16 teams in the Asian joust last year in Changsha, China where Gilas Pilipinas placed second to gold-medal winner China.

Coming from a semifinal finish in Manila in 2013, the Taiwanese, ranged against Qatar, Lebanon and Kazakhstan in elims play last year,  bowed out of contention right in the first round of group competitions.

They have vowed to make up for that disappointment in the 2016 Jones Cup where they will be up against teams from the Philippines, the United States, South Korea, Japan, India, Iran and Egypt.

The host team was third placer behind Iran and Gilas Pilipinas in 2015 and first runner-up in 2013 and 2014 with the same core which they sent to the Changsha Asian meet led by naturalized player Quincy Davis, gunners Tsai Weng-cheng and Tien Lei and versatile center Tseng Wen-ting.

Mighty Sports coach Bo Perasol is not taking the host team lightly even with his high-powered cast led by imports Al Thornton, Vernon Macklin, Zach Graham, Michael Singletary, Hamadi N’Diaye, Dewarick Spencer and Troy Gillenwater.

The Phl team, backed by Scratch It Pera-Pera Agad-Agad! and Symarom, includes Jeric Teng, TY Tang, Sunday Salvacion, Larry Rodriguez, Edrick Ferrer and Jason Brickman.

Perasol and his troops hope to win a fifth Jones Cup title after earlier victories in 1981, 1985, 1998 and 2012.

Meanwhile, titleholder Iran has kept the nucleus of its FIBA OQT team for the 2016 Jones Cup.

Coach Dirk Bauermann has brought in an 18-man pool composed of Rouzbeh Arghavan, Farid Aslani, Ali Allahverdi, Mohammad Ojaghi, Mohammad Torabi, Mohammad Hassanzadeh, Vahid Dalirzehan, Adnan Doraghi, Navid Rezaeifar, Amir Sedighi, Saleh Foroutan, Arsalan Kazemi, Sajjad Mashayekhi, Rasoul Mozaffari, Salar Monji, Meysam Rezaei, Behnam Yakhchali and Yousef Mohammadvand.

The Iranians are preparing for the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge, an international basketball tournament set in Tehran  Sept. 9-18.

This tournament, to be participated in by Team Phl, serves as the first step in determining the qualifiers for the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup which will feature teams from both FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania for the first time.