Camille Naredo

Strong Group Athletics practice in Manila on July 9, 2025, ahead of their title defense in the 44th William Jones Cup in Taiwan. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

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SGA Practice

Paige Javier

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175207000383720250709-sga-practice-jonescup-MD-7334.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Strong Group Athletics practice in Manila on July 9, 2025, ahead of their title defense in the 44th William Jones Cup in Taiwan. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News"/>Strong Group Athletics practice in Manila on July 9, 2025, ahead of their title defense in the 44th William Jones Cup in Taiwan. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News</div>MANILA -- Strong Group-Pilipinas is bracing for a tough title defense in the 2025 William Jones Cup amid the short time to prepare and the improvement of the teams competing in the tournament. Head coach Charles Tiu said he remains confident with their squad, as they run it back with most of their championship core.Strong Group will first be tested against Chinese-Taipei A on July 13.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/basketball/2025/6/28/sga-to-bring-back-championship-core-for-2025-jones-cup-title-defense-1709">READ: SGA to bring back championship core for 2025 Jones Cup title defense</a></div>&quot;I wish we had an extra game to prepare for them (Chinese-Taipei). They had a little bit of a warm-up game. But we follow them, we saw how they played Gilas. They&#x27;ve really improved so much and home court pa nila so siyempre big factor. But their core is solid, they&#x27;ve been improving, they&#x27;ve been playing together for a year and I&#x27;m expecting a tougher game because they&#x27;re much better than when we played them last year,&quot; he told reporters during their open practice on Wednesday.Tiu emphasized the importance of bringing back the players that led them to the Jones Cup title last year in their quest for a repeat.&quot;I think it&#x27;s very important. That is one of the reasons why we try to bring everybody back. With our short preparation we wanted guys familiar with what we want. I really liked the group last year so we got whoever was available. I&#x27;m glad it all worked out,&quot; he said.The squad is bringing back local standouts Kiefer Ravena, Jason Brickman, Dave Ildefonso, Rhenz Abando, Angelo Kouame, Geo Chiu and reigning NCAA Most Valuable Player Allen Liwag. &quot;I guess the very crucial part here is without time, practices together, that&#x27;s one downside. But we&#x27;re all basketball players we know how to play. Especially now that we&#x27;re defending champions we have a chip on our shoulder. Everyone wants to prove something. I think that&#x27;s the motivation we have now,&quot; Ravena said.&quot;The motivation is there. We&#x27;re basketball players we hoop, we like the competition. We want to come out as back-to-back champions after this Jones Cup,&quot; he added.Brickman and Abando also expressed confidence in the team, especially in their first game against Chinese-Taipei A.&quot;I think a lot of the guys played last year but it&#x27;s my first time playing with a few of the guys. But I think just having chemistry with each other on the court that&#x27;s gonna help especially playing against Taipei and the other teams,&quot; Brickman said.&quot;I know they&#x27;re missing a lot of guys from injuries. I&#x27;m familiar with some of the players because I played in Taiwan. They&#x27;re coming with a strong team so we have to be prepared,&quot; he added.&quot;Hindi magiging madali pero feeling ko kaya yun. Kasi nakalaro na namin sila last time... Okay naman siya kasi kilala ko naman sila,&quot; Abando added.Ildefonso, for his part, is grateful for another opportunity to play for Strong Group under Tiu.&quot;Okay naman. Siyempre we could&#x27;ve had more practices pero hindi rin naman pwede to look back on the past... As of now we&#x27;re getting better with chemistry,&quot; he said.&quot;I wanna go into a competition thinking we&#x27;ll win talaga. For me, confident talaga ako sa teammates ko they&#x27;re proven winners eh. You know we&#x27;re a good mix of young guys and vets,&quot; Ildefonso added.<div> </div><div>NEXT MAN UP FOR STRONG GROUP</div><script data-wid="auto" type="text/javascript" src="https://content.viralize.tv/display/?zid=AAFz8gWM8iRADsJr&amp;cid=ABb-WrHamTi-tgD_"></script>The team will be missing the services of Ravena in the first two games due to prior commitments. &quot;Unfortunate lang na first game kaagad namin Taipei eh. We could have really used him in that game. But hopefully we could weather the storm without him. Kiefer&#x27;s probably our vet right now and I think he&#x27;s one of our smartest guys. He&#x27;s got a really big role in our team,&quot; Tiu said.The Strong Group-Pilipinas head coach believes Brickman and Ulaanbaatar Xac guard Ian Miller ready to step up during Ravena&#x27;s absence.&quot;Well that&#x27;s why we got si Jason and si Ian. Actually this is the first time I&#x27;m getting a guard as an import sa SGA. Like a point guard. We kinda factored in that we knew Kiefer would miss a few games so I had to get an experienced guy. So him and Jason will primarily be our ball handlers while Kiefer is not there,&quot; he said. &quot;We just have to make do kasi mahirap din yung schedule. Eight games in eight days. It&#x27;s really tiring and It&#x27;s not something our guys are used to. And this time we&#x27;re only bringing 12-13 guys. Everybody is gonna get a chance and hopefully they can all produce,&quot; Tiu explained.Brickman said he&#x27;s always ready to step up especially during Ravena&#x27;s absence.&quot;We just gotta step up and make plays. Kiefer is obviously a great player but so other guys are gonna have to step up and run the points. I think everyone has to chip up when they can,&quot; he said.Ravena also expressed confidence the team can hold the fort in his absence.&quot;Confident naman. Beterano na din yung mga yan kaya na din nila yung mga ginagawa ko as a leader. Siguro yung question lang is how we can mesh well as a team lalo na we only had probably less than ten practices under our belt,&quot; he said.&quot;These guys are capable of doing what I can do as well. We just need to make sure we do our roles properly. This team di siya nagkukulang sa talent so kung ano lang yung kulang doon kami mag-sistep up,&quot; Ravena added.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/basketball/2025/7/9/ravena-on-quiambaos-nba-dream-work-in-silence-surprise-everybody-2100">Ravena on Quiambao’s NBA dream: ‘Work in silence, surprise everybody’</a></div>Former NBA veteran Andre Roberson, Fil-Am DJ Fenner and Tajuan Agee are also making a comeback for the squad.&quot;It&#x27;s a fun time being back here. Enjoying the city, enjoying the country in general. Like I said we&#x27;ll go out there and try to represent the Filipino family with pride. Try to bring back some hardware,&quot; Roberson said.&quot;I&#x27;m confident because we got guys back that won it last year so they know what it takes to win. And we&#x27;ve got a great group of local guys. I&#x27;m excited to go out there and compete and to try to put our best foot forward,&quot; he added.He also shared why he decided to come back and suit up for Strong Group-Pilipinas again after the Dubai International Basketball Championship.&quot;It&#x27;s a great group of guys. Charles makes it easy for us to transition and play good basketball. I like winning and so does he. So he always put us in a great position to try and do so,&quot; Roberson said.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175207021436720250709-sga-practice-jonescup-MD-6452.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Coach Charles Tiu supervises the Strong Group Athletics practice in Manila on July 9, 2025, ahead of their title defense in the 44th William Jones Cup in Taiwan. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News"/>Coach Charles Tiu supervises the Strong Group Athletics practice in Manila on July 9, 2025, ahead of their title defense in the 44th William Jones Cup in Taiwan. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News</div>Fenner is glad to have another chance to represent the country, tracing his roots in Rizal and Malabon.&quot;It feels amazing. I feel really blessed, thankful to be here. I&#x27;m really hopeful the Philippines holds the future for me and my family. I&#x27;m really thankful to be here, being half-Filipino being able to see family and reunite with my teammates,&quot; he said.Strong Group also reinforced its team with former Anyang Jung Kwan Jang Red Boosters forward Javi Gomez de Liaño.<div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/basketball/2025/7/9/pba-javi-gdl-shares-wish-amid-terrafirmas-uncertain-future-1801">READ: Javi GDL shares wish amid TerraFirma’s uncertain future</a></div>&quot;He&#x27;s definitely improved so much as a player. His confidence level is up there. He&#x27;s matured so much... Hopefully this time I can give him more run because I know the previous, our previous teams I didn&#x27;t get to give him much playing time,&quot; Tiu said of Gomez de Liaño.&quot;I think Ian&#x27;s been good. I think he&#x27;s chilling in practice to be honest. So I&#x27;m hoping he&#x27;s one of those imports that are just gamers.... he knows when it&#x27;s time to play, it&#x27;s time to win he&#x27;ll be ready. So I&#x27;m not too worried about him,&quot; he said when asked about Miller&#x27;s adjustment with the team.Strong Group will play eight games in eight days in their Jones Cup title defense.After their opening match against Chinese-Taipei A, they will face Japan&#x27;s Under-25 Akatsuki squad, Qatar, Australia, Chinese-Taipei B, Malaysia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.The 2025 William Jones Cup will run from July 12 to 20 at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Strong Group-Pilipinas is bracing for a tough title defense in the 2025 William Jones Cup amid the short time to prepare and the improvement of the teams competing in the tournament.

Strong Group-Pilipinas is bracing for a tough title defense in the 2025 William Jones Cup amid the short time to prepare and the improvement of the teams competing in the tournament.

Strong Group-Pilipinas braces for tough title defense in Jones Cup

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Strong Group-Pilipinas braces for tough title defense in Jones Cup

Paige Javier,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jul 09, 2025 11:58 PM PHT

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Kiefer Ravena

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Rhenz Abando

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