UTSUNOMIYA, Japan – The Bay Area Dragons take the floor in the EASL Champions Week on Thursday with a lot of optimism after an impressive campaign in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The Dragons take on the Seoul SK Knights in their first competitive match since placing second to Barangay Ginebra in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last January.
Prized acquisition
Little has changed since then for the Brian Goorjian-coached Dragons, except for the highly-touted Fil-American Sedrick Barefield joining the squad.
Unlike in the PBA, Bay Area will finally get to play with two imports with Myles Powell and Andrew Nicholson now seeing action together in the EASL.
As part of the preparation for the EASL, Bay Area played tune-up games against college teams, winning by huge margins.
Bay Area team captain Duncan Reid said the experience of playing in the PBA including Barangay Ginebra was beneficial for their team heading to the EASL.
“The PBA is a great league. There were so many tough games. It was such a great experience for our team. We wish we could have won that championship but hats off to Ginebra for being the better team,” said Reid.
“I think that’s a great sense of motivation for our team. We don’t need any more motivation... Every team is so talented but we want to win that championship home,” said Reid.
Winning the championship though won’t be easy as they will face off against the champions of Korea and Japan in the Knights and the Utsunomiya Brex.
“Seoul Knights and Utsunomiya Brex are great teams. We are really focused on doing our best. We can’t take either of them lightly. We are all champions or runners-up of Asia. We are approaching both of those games as must wins,” said Reid.
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