Mighty Sports eyes back-to-back wins

MANILA, Philippines - Fresh from its successful stint in the William Jones Cup Basketball Championship in Taiwan, the Mighty Sports Apparels-Philippine team goes for another international glory when it sees action in the Merlion Cup in Singapore.

The country’s representative will have new faces in its lineup in a bid to further fine-tune the performance of the team that won in Taipei City last month.

The Merlion Cup is making a comeback after a 20-year hiatus – thanks to the efforts of the Basketball Association of Singapore.

This year’s edition will be held at the OCBC Arena Sept. 21-25.

The Mighty Sports Apparel-Philippines team is supported by HC Technology Pte. Ltd.,  Huishi International Group Co. Ltd., Cebuana Lhuillier and Scratch it.

The team will be facing a small but dangerous field of five professional ball clubs in the region, some of which are also seeing action in the ASEAN Basketball League.

Aside from Mighty Sports also entered in the event are the Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor, Singapore Slingers, Seoul Samsung Thunder, Westports Malaysia Dragons, and Shanghai Sharks, which is owned by former NBA superstar Yao Ming.

Mighty Sports is grouped with the Seoul Samsung Thunders and the Westports Malaysia Dragons. It will face the Thunder on opening day and the Dragons two days later.

The top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinals which is a knockout affair with the winners slugging it out in the winner-take-all match for the title.