Mighty Sports looks to regain Jones Cup title

MANILA, Philippines — Mighty Sports Apparel sets out to regain the William Jones Cup title it won for the country in 2016, confident its talent-laden squad can fight for the crown in the July 12-21 cagefest in Taipei.

“I like our chances. I think we have a good chance to win if we can all play together,” said coach Charles Tiu during the team dinner hosted by Mighty Sports owners Alex and Caesar Wongchuking and Willy Ocier, big boss of team backer Go For Gold, Tuesday night at City of Dreams Manila.

Tiu and his staff led by assistant Rajko Toroman assembled a crew bannered by five imports and some Fil-Ams to do battle against the likes of Iran, Jordan, Japan and Korea. Renaldo Balkman, Zach Graham, Eugene Phelps, Hamady Ndiaye, and McKenzie Moore provide foreign muscle to local guys Jason Brickman, Angelo Wongchuking, Jeremiah Gray, Roosevelt Adams, former PBA star Joseph Yeo, MPBL MVP Gab Banal, former Ateneo mainstay Aaron Black and Fil-Am Mikey Williams.

“Talent-wise, we are very talented. We have players who are so gifted offensively. Secondly, we have a very smart team who have played at high-level. We can also do a lot of things defensively,” said Tiu.

“This is arguably the best team we have fielded,” Tiu added.

Mighty primed up for its Jones Cup campaign by playing Gilas Pilipinas in a tune-up that ended in an 85-85 standoff last Monday. Mighty actually had control of this matchup until Marcio Lassiter and CJ Perez saved the Nationals from the blushes with big triples that forced the draw.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Al Panlilio, who graced the affair alongside his special assistant Ryan Gregorio, expressed high hopes for Mighty in the annual tourney that the Philippines has won five times overall.

“I think Mighty Sports has always built a team that will win. I’m confident they’ve thought this out well and their coaching staff. I think they are always there to play hard and win. They’re really playing to win it all all the time,” said Panlilio.