Mighty Sports yields to Morocco in Dubai tiff

MANILA, Philippines - Mighty Sports-Philippines opened its campaign on the wrong foot as it absorbed a stinging 83-75 loss to Sale of Morocco at the start of the 28th Dubai International Basketball Championship Friday at the Al Ahli gym here.

 “The gigil factor was there not to mention that we are still in the process of adjustment, including our body clock. But I don’t want to use that as our excuse,” said coach Charles Tiu. “They made the big shots late in the game and we didn’t.”

For a while, Mighty Sports looked headed for a big come-from-behind victory when naturalized Marcus Douthit hit two charities that put Mighty Sports back on top, 67-66.

But it proved to be the last gallant stand of Mighty Sports as Sale’s import Brandon Freeman buried back-to-back triples and Zakaria Elmashabi added one in a whirlwind finish to jumpstart their own title bid.

Freeman finished with 28 points as he got the better of his shootout with Mighty’s Justine Brownlee.

Brownlee led Mighty Sports with 27 points but the 7-foot-3 Hasheem Thabeet produced only five points and four boards. Domenic McGuire also struggled with 9 points on 3-of-11 shooting.

Also getting off to hot starts in the seven-team tournament were Al Riyade, which dumped Egypt, 85-69, and Sagese, which downed Ball Above All, 98-72.