The Blustar Detergent Dragons were rattled just a few minutes after winning the tip of their PBA D-League Foundation Cup debut on Monday.
The reason? A 25-3 juggernaut from Tanduay Rhum which broke the game wide open. Blustar had opened the game scoring the first field goal, but the team struggled to score in the next few minutes as they succumbed to a huge deficit early in the match.
The Dragons looked out of sync after that Tanduay blitz, and were never able to recover. The Rhum Masters took the game, 94-71, handing the Malaysia-based club team a rude welcoming in the conference.
Yet Dragons head coach Goh Cheng Huat remained steady after the final buzzer, the same way he did throughout the blowout loss. Having coached the Malaysian national basketball team from 2009 to 2011, Goh has seen worse losses in the past.
“This is the first time our locals will be playing in this league. They started very jittery, they don’t know what to do, it was just not doing everything. Hopefully, the next game, they understand how we play,” Goh said.
Goh didn’t complain at calls, didn’t scold the team for their 33 turnovers, and just kept egging his men to play hard even if they were down by a humongous gap.
More than the results, Goh said he is looking at raising the level of play among Malaysian locals. And suiting up in the D-League is the first step.
“One of our objectives here is to let them get exposure when it comes to the Philippine way of basketball. We know the Philippines is good in basketball, it is (like) your national sport. I am thankful to the PBA for allowing us to participate,” Goh said.
“Hopefully my players pick up as much knowledge as possible. I look at it one game at a time. We wish that Malaysian players can step up to their (D-League) level,” Goh added.
With an opportunity to play his locals more minutes and get them exposed to the Philippine brand of play, Goh wants to take advantage.
“We know our level. Our target is just to do our best, be able to get used to the way of playing in this league. Our target is just make the play-offs. If we make the play-offs, that is a bonus. We will try our best. In the beginning, our objective is just to improve our locals and giving them higher level of game knowledge,” he closed.
