Smart Gilas defeated the United States with the final scores at 76-75, only one point lead to capture the championship of the 34th Jones Cup trophy with the heroics made by LA Tenorio who scored the most important shots of the game to take the lead.
LA Tenorio scored with a total of 20 points and his partner Jeff Chan made also a tremendous performance from the outside making 4 three-pointers of the game.
The Philippine Team ended their Jones Cup journey in a fascinating fashion with a total of 7 wins and only 1 loss to capture the Jones Cup title. For the first time in history since the 1998 Centennial Team who also captured the title, the Philippines is now back on track in Asian basketball supremacy.
Smart Gilas was downed by 11 points at the end of the first half but they unleashed their true potentials in the second half of the game to rebound and even take the lead from the United States.
The win put the Philippines in record books as the only team to stop the dominance of Iran in the competition after the Middle Eastern Team captured the title three-times in a row.
Smart Gilas played with a true heart of a champion and with the supports of the OFW community in Taiwan, the win is one of the sweetest achievement made by the Philippine Team which was lead by Coach Chot Reyes and financed by Manny Pangilinan’s PLDT Group.
