After Saturday night’s setback at the hands of Abraham Grahita and the veteran-laden Indonesia, Malaysia is now lying at the bottom of the 2017 SEABA Championship for Men team standings, as they fell down to 0-2.
And no one is more disappointed than Malaysian head coach Goh Cheng Huat.
“Very, very disappointed,” Goh confessed shortly after the 63-42 rout his team received at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
The veteran tactician has every right to be frustrated, though. After yesterday’s loss by just seven points, 74-67, to Thailand with a good offensive start, today they lost to the Indonesians by a whopping margin of 21 points.
Furthermore, the Malaysians shot poorly from the floor, hitting just 10 of their 46 attempts, with 5-of-28 of their shots coming from beyond the arc. And, they also failed to protect the ball, as they committed 18 turnovers.
“For this game, we had a hard time scoring,” the Malaysian mentor stressed.
However, Goh lauded his players’ willingness to slug it out on the defensive end. Against Indonesia, Malaysia had three blocks and seven steals, which helped their counterparts commit 19 turnovers.
“Defense-wise, they were following my instructions,” said Goh, who is also the coach of the Blustar Detergent Dragons.
“Other than that, I can say I’m pleased with my players.”
The tournament still has five days left, and the Malaysians have four more games to go — a chance for them to rake in victories. And for Goh, the regional cagefest is also a gauge to see how far has Malaysia developed in basketball.
“The coming SEA Games will be in Kuala Lumpur, in our home country. This tournament is a guide for us to see how Malaysia’s level is,” Goh said.
“Hopefully come SEA Games, we will learn something about this.”
