SGA ends rough Jones Cup campaign with win over Jordan

Sports

STRONG Group Athletics (SGA) ended its tumultuous campaign in the 45th William Jones Cup with a 96-91 win over Jordan on Friday, Aug. 21, at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City.

SGA finished the tournament with a 6-1 (win-loss) record, an impressive showing that proved not enough to bring them deeper into the tournament due to a controversial format.

SGA and Wonju DB of South Korea finished the group-stage with identical 5-1 records. Owing to its superior quotient, Wonju took the No. 1 seed and booked one of the two semifinal tickets.

Despite having the second-best record in its group, SGA still failed to advance to the semis due to a tournament format that awarded a semis berth to host team Chinese-Taipei.

Chinese-Taipei ended the group-stage with a dismal 1-5 record and was beaten badly by SGA, 74-117.

The odd format heavily contributed to SGA’s failure to contend for a third straight title. Overall, SGA wound up fifth.

In its final game, 7-foot-4 giant Boban Marjanovic turned his best game in the tournament by firing 21 points, more than doubling his 9.7 points average in the group-stage.

Tajuan Agee added 17 points and four rebounds, Matthew Wright and Ian Miller scored 15 points apiece and DJ Fenner had 11 points.

THE SCORES:

SGA (96) – Marjanovic 21, Agee 17, Wright 15, Miller 15, Fenner 11, Pineiro 7, Manalili 6, Ildefonso D. 2, Diouf 2, Navarro 0.

JORDAN (91) – Alshami 21, Olajuwon 18, Saleh 12, Abuhawwas 11, Mustaga 11, Hussein 11, Salman 4, Kanaan 3, Kilani 0, Dwiek 0.QUARTERSCORES: 27-24, 50-48, 71-74, 96-91.(CCM)