Egwu believes teamwork is key to keep Deguara at bay
KUALA LUMPUR: Beware of the giant!
Westports Malaysia Dragons centre Nnanna Egwu will have his hands full against the tallest player in the Asean Basketball League (ABL) – Samuel Deguara – when they take on Hong Kong Eastern at the Maba Stadium today.
At 2.29m (7ft 5in), Deguara is the tallest in the league.
And Egwu, who stands only at 2.11m (6ft 11in), will be spending most of his minutes against the Maltese centre.
The Maltese has been putting up big numbers but the Nigerian-born American Egwu believes the task of locking down Deguara will ultimately require teamwork.
“Obviously he is a good player and I think it’s going to be a team effort in trying to contain him and minimising his effectiveness in the game,” said Egwu.
“But we still have to do what we have to do offensively and defensively and play our game. We also have some advantages.”
Egwu showed tremendous composure at crucial moments in the Dragons’ 84-82 win against Saigon Heat on Wednesday at home.
With 35 seconds left on the clock and the Dragons down by one point, he grabbed a key offensive rebound and then put it back in to regain the advantage.
And with less than a second in the final quarter and the scores tied, Egwu threw a perfect lob for Winston Shepard, who put it in for the win and deny the Heat an overtime battle.
Besides Deguara, the Dragons will also have to watch out for American point guard O’Darien Bassett, who is the second highest scoring player in the league.
However, Dragons head coach Jamie Pearlman believes they have the strength to match Hong Kong Eastern.
“I’m very proud of the win (against the Heat), it looked like it was getting away from us, but our players were resilient.
“It has given the confidence and we’ll build from there,” said Pearlman.