Rested and ready to win

Barracudas chase second ABL victory of the season in Jakarta

AMERICAN import Mike Pilgrim is ready to step it up a notch to land the Barracudas their second win of the Asean Basketball League (ABL) when they take on Indonesia's Satria Muda BritAma in Jakarta tomorrow.

The Brunei team have been handed an extra week to work on their upcoming game after Typhoon Santi stalled their match against the Philippine Patriots scheduled to be held in Manila last Saturday.

"It's getting better for me, but I'm still trying to adjust to the weather. I'm definitely looking forward to a good game against the Indonesians," said Pilgrim in an interview with The Brunei Times.

Asked about the match against the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) champions, the 25-year-old American replied: "I'm expecting them to come out aggressively especially their American import, Alex Hartman, who is their best player."

Satria Muda are coming off a 96-72 loss to the Singapore Slingers last weekend and the difference in the match was that the Slingers outscored their opponents 52-28 in the paint.

"From what I saw one of the big guys (Theo Little) didn't feature much in that game which I believe hurt them. They will definitely be ready to bounce back against us," commented the 6ft 9in American, who expects a very tough match in Jakarta.

His teammate Lonnie Jones is excited to face the Indonesians.

"We are there just for the win. I'm all ready to step it up to lift the team and do whatever it takes for victory," said Jones.

The Barracudas coach, Bong Ramos, is expecting a resurgent Satria Muda after watching them fall to the Slingers.

"They are a fast team but they just had a bad game against the Slingers. I think that they were not ready for the (Slingers) match but this will be different as they are playing on their home court," said Ramos.

The Filipino mentor expects some tough defence from the Indonesian side which is key in their matchup.

"We know that they can put up some good full court pressure defence and half court pressure defence. We will definitely have to pressbreak to have a good chance against them," said the 48-year-old Filipino.

"We are expecting to win this game but then it is entirely up to us on how we can execute on both the offensive and defensive ends," continued the ex-Indonesia national coach.

Asked whether the extra week was good for the Barracudas, Ramos said: "Actually there was no extra time due to the travelling period. It was very tiring but we managed to put in some good time for running and conditioning to improve on our stamina and also on our free throws."

The other players on the Barracudas roster for the trip to Indonesia are the trio of Filipino imports captain Francis 'Kiko' Adriano, Don Camaso and Leo Avenido and the group of local players made up of vice-captain Esmond Tan, Benjamin Lim, Xavier Fong, Benjamin Sim, Presley Ho and Lim Aik Hock.

Satria Muda, meanwhile, will start their American duo, Hartman and Little, Filipino Rensy Bajar, Youbel Sondakh and Rony Gunawan.

The Brunei Times