TANGERANG (Indonesia) - Johor didn't have the ideal start to their Basketball Champions League Asia-East (BCL Asia-East) campaign after getting blanked in Window 1 of the 2026 competitions last week.
But the Malaysian outfit is hardly shaken, and in fact maintained optimism as the team is clinging on to the fact that they will have a couple more chances to get back on the same teams that spoiled their debut.
"In the world of basketball, I think all players and coaches know that beating a team three times is a super, super hard thing to do. [But] We know we're gonna have the chance to play them again," said Scottie Lewis.
The Southern Tigers lost both of their games in the Group Phase opener, first a 90-80 decision versus Hi-Tech Basketball Club of Thailand in which both squads duked it out until the latter gave out in overtime.
Some 24 hours later, they'd bow to Dewa United Banten, 91-79. The crew started strong and even led by double digits, but their tired legs could only do so much as the home team turned things around in the third.
Those losses, according to the athletic swingman, exposed how much work lies ahead for Johor, most especially in terms of chemistry, as the team only got together mere weeks before the pan-regional tilt's opener.
"These games were back-to-back so not a lot of practice leading up to those games," Lewis said.
"I think we could've lost by a shorter margin tonight," he furthered, "but like I said, it's just gonna come down to effort and just making the right play, and us being locked in defensively every single possession."
That game against Dewa in particular served as a prime example of their unpolished cohesion, according to Aaron Geramipoor, as their counterparts leaned on familiarity to flip the switch en route to a 2-0 start.
"The first half was great. And in the third quarter that's when we hit a bump, and ... you know, the chemistry levels that we have, you could tell, it was obvious that we weren't where it's supposed to be," he offered.
We're still building, we're still learning. We still have a lot of chemistry to build.
"And that's where Dewa took the lead," Geramipoor added, "and pulled away from us."
But at the same time, the season is still early, and the time in between games and windows shall be an opportunity for the Southern Tigers to refine everything - and become a better unit when they face their foes again.
"Our team has only been together for around three weeks," said Geramipoor, who joined the Major Basketball League champs last March 4. "We're still building, we're still learning. We still have a lot of chemistry to build."
So, it shall be interesting to see how much they've developed by the time the BCL Asia-East caravan takes its act to their own stomping grounds at the Arena Larkin Indoor Stadium in Johor Bahru on April 15-17.
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FIBA