Strong coaches fire up Quiambao

Kevin Quiambao expressed gratitude to his Strong Group Athletics coaches for squeezing out the best in him in the ongoing 33rd Dubai International Basketball Championship.

Quiambao said he credits his string of good performances to their high-profile coaching staff headed by Charles Tiu with Olympic bronze medalist Brian Goorjian, University Athletic Association of the Philippines champion Topex Robinson and Serbian mentor Rajko Toroman as deputies.

Quiambao, the reigning Most Valuable Player of the UAAP, fired a game-high 20 points and four rebounds to power the Filipino club to a 95-73 win over Beirut Sports Club of Lebanon early Wednesday at the Al Nasr Club.

Import McKenzie Moore chipped in 19 points, eight assists and five rebounds while Jordan Heading had 15 points and Howard registered 11 points and nine rebounds for Strong Group which needs to win over unbeaten Al Ahli Tripoli of Libya to take the top spot of Group B heading into the knockout stages.

A win over Al Ahli in their game scheduled at 1:15 a.m. on Thursday (Manila time) will pit Strong Group either against Al Sale of Morocco, local club Al Nasr or the Tunisian national team, who all fashion identical 2-2 records in Group A heading into the final matches of the preliminaries.

Quiambao, who dropped nine of his total scoring output in the first 10 minutes that dictated the tempo in favor of Strong Group against the Lebanese club, said he is glad to come up with yet another solid performance.

"This is special. I'm coming from a string of good games. I'm just following coach Charles' system as well as that of the whole coaching staff," said Quiambao, whose solid performance drew the attention of a Middle East club and the UAE national squad.

"I'm thankful we got the win and I was able to get a breakout game."

Quiambao has consistently scored double digits, averaging 19 points in four games for Strong Group.

His best performance was a 24-point explosion against Al Wahda-Syria in which he went 6-of-6 from the three-point area to help Strong Group post an 89-67 victory.

Tiu said Quiambao doesn't let any outside noise affect his performance.

"KQ (Quiambao) doesn't need any help being focused. He's always locked in," Tiu said.