BAY Area came in as a guest team in the PBA Commissioner's Cup with humble goals.
"We just want to come in and show the country that we want to help (the development of) basketball (in the country), we want to learn, we want to grow and provide something that's entertainment to the public," said Bay Area coach Brian Goorjian.
"And I hope we get a team that's good enough down the stretch who could compete with the San Miguels and the Talk N Texts. Those teams down the backstretch," added the Australian-American. "That would be huge for us."
The Dragons seemed to belie Goorjian's words and readily looked like a team being more than just a mere entry following their 133-87 manhandling of Blackwater Wednesday in the match kicking off the mid-season conference at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Myles Powell led the rampage with 41 points on top of eight rebounds while Glenn Yang's 23 markers paced a balanced effort by his supporting cast that resulted in the biggest winning margin by any guest team in the 47-year-old league.
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"I thought at the start of the game our defense was good. We stayed in front of 'em, we did a good job on the on-balls. And in the offensive end we really clicked," was how Goorjian, currently also the Australian national team's head coach, put it.
Indeed, Blackwater failed to out-quick Bay Area and even struggled mightily in the face of its taller foes' fast switches, excellent ball movements and sizzling shooting, making just 32 of 93 shots to the Dragons' 47-of-85 clip.
Ato Ular notched 13 points and 14 rebounds and Rashawn McCarthy, import Cameron Krutwig, Baser Amer and Mike Ayonayon each scored at least 10 points each but the Bossing, save for the game's opening minutes, were never really in the game.
Even the help coming from new acquisitions Troy Rosario and Gab Banal did not come as Rosario was not utilized the entire game while Banal missed all his five tries from the field.
It is highly doubtful the two former TNT Tropang Giga could have given Blackwater the needed boost since Powell, who will play three more games until Oct. 1 before Andrew Nicholson takes over in Bay Area's next four outings, made sure Bay Area stayed on top for good.
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"The last two months coach has been doing a great job of keeping everybody together, doing a great job during tune-up games and most importantly everybody's locked in," said the former Seton Hall standout and Philadelphia 76er.
"Whatever coach asked us to do that's what we did and it showed tonight out there on the floor." (NC)
The Scores:
Bay Area 133 - Powell 41, Yang 22, Zhu 13, Lam 13, Blankley 11, Liu 9, Zheng 7, Reid 5, Song 5, Liang 3, Ewing 3, Ju 1.
Blackwater 87 - Ular 13, Krutwig 11, McCarthy 11, Amer 10, Ayonayon 10, Taha 8, Jackson 8, Go 5, Sena 3, Dyke 3, Suerte 3, Publico 2, Ebona 0, Banal 0.
Quarters: 36-19, 64-36, 97-76, 133-87.
