Strong Group entered the win column in Group A of the 2026 William Jones Cup, scoring a come-from-behind 78-72 victory over Japan’s Asian Games-bound team on Saturday at Xinzhuang Gymnasium in Taiwan.
The team was coming off a 110-79 loss to Wonju DB, which snapped its 16-game winning streak in the annual tournament.
“Good bounce-back win. We just had to. There was no way we could play as badly as we did yesterday. We had our moments, but we still had a few bad stretches. We played some really good defense in the fourth quarter,” said Strong Group head coach Charles Tiu.
Strong Group trailed 60-55 entering the final frame before Ian Miller — who replaced the injured Allen Liwag in the lineup — and Matthew Wright sparked the comeback, putting the Philippine club ahead, 72-70, with 2:52 remaining.
Miller then sank two free throws to extend Strong Group’s lead to 74-70.
Gen Hiraiwa split his free throws before Miller and Isaiah Pineiro sealed the victory with clutch charities down the stretch.
Pineiro tallied 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Wright fired 15 points to go with four rebounds and three assists. Tajuan Agee chipped in 14 points and nine rebounds, while Miller added nine points.
On his 38th birthday, Boban Marjanovic also contributed nine points and seven rebounds.
Strong Group will next face host Chinese Taipei Blue on Sunday.
“We are slowly finding our groove, and we need these types of games, although I’m hoping we can have a more dominant performance. We also got an earful from Boss Jacob, and that gave us good motivation to compete harder,” said Tiu.
“We need to get back to playing our SGA brand of basketball and find our identity. It’s a long tournament, but we definitely need to step up to beat Taipei.”
Japan, which dropped to 0-2, was led by Arai Gakuto’s 25 points. Ozawa Hiyuu added 13 points.
