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Malachi Richardson starred for SGA against Amman United. UAE Basketball Association |
MANILA--Strong Group Athletics completed a 4-0 sweep of Group A action in the Dubai International Basketball Championship after prevailing over Amman United, 84-75, early Thursday (Philippine Time) at the Al-Nasr Club in Dubai.
Clutch baskets from Malachi Richardson and Jason Brickman helped seal the deal for SGA after Amman fought back from a huge deficit and cut it down to six with more than three minutes left.
Richardson led SGA with 24 points on 6-of-11 shooting from long range, one rebound, and one assist, while Chris McCullough bounced back from an ugly outing against Beirut First and added 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists, three steals, and one block.
DeMarcus Cousins only tallied two points, both on free throws, three rebounds, and one block in six minutes of action.
SGA will play Sharjah in the quarterfinals early Friday (Philippine Time).
Fadi Mustafa scored 20 points, grabbed four rebounds, assisted two, and stole two rebounds for Amman, which fell to a tie for third place with the United Arab Emirates and Al-Nasr at 1-3.
Al-Nasr forced the logjam with an 80-68 stunner against UAE on Wednesday night, but following the computation of quotients, Amman, anchored by its 107-82 rout of Al-Nasr, stays in third place, while UAE, which stunned Amman on a buzzer-beater, takes fourth place, eliminating Al-Nasr, which needed to beat UAE by at least 14 points to advance to the quarterfinals.
Former San Miguel import Henry Sims added 15 points and 13 rebounds, while Ahmad Al-Hamarsheh chipped in 10 points, 10 rebounds, one assist, and four steals for Amman.
Meanwhile, Zamboanga's stint in the DIBC ended on a sour note as Tunisia ripped them, 95-59.
Like in its previous game against Sagesse, Zamboanga never got off to a strong start, as Tunisia quickly consolidated its dominance.
Wassef Methnani led Tunisia, which sealed the second seed in Group B at 3-1 behind 4-0 Al-Ahli Tripoli, with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, five rebounds, two assists, and three steals.
Jawhar Jawadi and Radhouane Slimane each added 10 points.
Sam Deguara paced Zamboanga, which crashed out of the tournament at 0-4, with 16 points, 12 rebounds, and one assist.
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