STRONG Group Athletics (SGA) will be representing the Philippines once again as it defends the William Jones Cup title it won last year when 44th edition of the annual cage tournament fires off this coming July 12-20 at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Coach Charles Tiu confirmed the club team’s participation, where they intend to bring back the core that bagged the tournament championship last year.
Tiu said they expect their title-retention bid to be a lot tougher considering that host team Taiwan will be all out in its desire to win the Jones Cup right on its home floor.
“Definitely we all saw what they (Taiwanese) did against Gilas,” Tiu said, referring the Taiwanese national squad that beat Gilas, 93-84, in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 qualifiers third window in Taiwan last February.
The soft-spoken Filipino coach said practice time together will be a challenge since they won’t be complete when the team begins its preparation this Monday, June 30, at the St. Benidle gym.
We just gotta figure out how to get guys to play together, especially with the team going to be complete probably only on the 5th (of July), and to keep things simple as we prepare for a tough tournament,” he explained.
Set to return for SGA are Kiefer Ravena, high-flying guard Rhenz Abando, Filipino American guard Jason Brickman, Geo Chiu, reigning NCAA Most Valuable Player Allen Liwag, Dave Ildefonso, Philippine naturalized big man Ange Kouame and American guard DJ Fenner, whose mother is a Filipina but born in Canada.
Tiu also confirmed that former Oklahoma City Thunder forward Andre Roberson and big man Tajuan Agee will be back to reinforce the SGA squad.
Roberson suited up for SGA in the Dubai International Basketball championships in 2024.
