De La Salle teammates Kevin Quiambao and Francis Escandor joined hands from deep as Strong Group cruised past Al Wahda Syria with a 89-67 drubbing to claim its second victory in the 2024 Dubai International Basketball Championship at the Al Nasr Club on Saturday, Jan. 20 (Manila time). 

With team import Dwight Howard cooling down, Quiambao and Escandor took turns in bombarding the helpless Syrian side to the delight of the dominant Filipino crowd inside the venue.

The hot-shooting UAAP champions caught fire from the outside where they only missed one attempt to finish with a combined 11 threes made. Quiambao eventually delivered a team-high 24 points that went with five rebounds and two assists followed by the latter with 18 markers.

Meanwhile, naturalized Filipino center Andray Blatche made up for his slack in the opening game that saw him go blank on the field off a nasty 0-of-10 shooting after scoring eight of his 12 points off back-to-back three-pointers in the first quarter. 

Jordan Heading, for his part, registered 12 makers of his own while former NBA star Howard contributed five points and a 10-rebound outing. 

It is a 2-0 start for the Philippine squad which is set to cap its busy three-day playdates against Lebanon’s Homenetmen on Sunday, Jan. 21 at 11:15 p.m. (Manila time).

Blatche’s personal 8-2 run in the first quarter gave Strong Group a head start of 23-12 before Al Wahda came within five, 23-18, in the second quarter. 

However, Howard came through with a statement block before burying a last-second triple on the other end to keep a 43-30 separation from the Syrian side to greet the break. 

By the time Quiambao sank his sixth and final triple for a perfect outside shooting, Strong Group’s lead had grown to its biggest at 82-55, still with 4:17 remaining left in the game. 

It was all Strong Group the rest of the way as Al Wahda found itself unresponsive in the beatdown. 

Myron Jordan paced the losing end with 19 points, while Jomaru Hohadbrown added 17 markers off the bench.