CJ Perez knocked down a clutch triple for Gilas Pilipinas to end their friendly against Mighty Sports to an 85-all draw, Monday evening at the Meralco Gym in Pasig City.
Down by three with less than 20 ticks left and down by three, Roger Pogoy missed a triple. Marcio Lassiter was able to get the offensive rebound and passed the ball to Japeth Aguilar. Aguilar then swung the ball to Perez, who knocked down the game-tying triple with 14.76 seconds remaining.
Gilas burned their last two fouls in the following possessions to give Mighty Sports just 2.96 seconds to create a shot.
Off a timeout, McKenzie Moore missed his go-ahead attempt from downtown as time expired.
“Coming into the game, I really didn’t expect much but the guys gave a good effort. I’m happy with the result,” said Gilas Pilipinas head coach Yeng Guiao.
Behind Mikey Williams, Mighty Sports was holding an 83-77 lead with 2:11 left.
“Mighty is a good quality team. Coach Rajko [Toroman], of course, is an excellent coach with five imports and a lot of Fil-Ams. So this is really a good practice for us in terms of our preparation,” Guiao said.
Marcio Lassiter knocked down a triple with 58 ticks remaining to cut the lead to three that paved the way for Perez’s heroics.
“On Friday, we’ll start to play and we’ll be facing my old team Iran. We then face Korea and Japan. We are still not yet ready. But that’s the schedule and we have to respect that,” said Mighty Sports mentor Rajko Toroman, who took charge for head coach Charles Tiu.
Perez and Lassiter were joined by Japeth Aguilar, Matthew Wright, Roger Pogoy, Mark Barroca, Beau Belga, June Mar Fajardo, Gabe Norwood, JP Erram, and Robert Bolick
Kiefer Ravena missed the game as he is only allowed to play competitive tune-up games on July 25.
Besides Williams and Moore, Mighty Sports was composed of Roosevelt Adams, Jeremiah Gray, Hamady N’Diaye, Aaron Black, Renaldo Balkman, Eugene Phelps, Zach Graham, Jason Brickman, and Angelo Wongchuking.
On the other hand, Gab Banal was absent for Mighty Sports as his Bacoor Strikers had a game with Zamboanga in Cuneta Astrodome.
Mighty Sports will play in the upcoming Jones Cup in Taiwan from July 12 to 21.
Gilas Pilipinas are in the midst in their preparation for the FIBA World Cup from August 31 to September 15.
