Blackwater head coach Ariel Vanguardia admitted that they were caught off guard by how Bay Area shot the ball so well as the Bossing opened their 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup in a humiliating fashion with their worst loss in franchise history.

Although Blackwater wasn't entirely strangers to the guest team having played three tuneup games against it in the lead-up to the mid-season conference, the offensive juggernaut led by Myles Powell was far from Vanguardia had imagined.

“Napakaganda ng shooting sila ngayon, kalaban namin sila di naman ganun kadeadly pero talagang today, may mga contested uncontested talagang pumapasok yung scoring nila. We got to be ready for this kind of game,” said Vanguardia following Blackwater’s 133-87 defeat at the hands of Bay Area.

Aside from the 41-point explosion of Powell, four other players scored in twin-digits with Glen Yang contributing 22 points while Songwei Zhu and Kobey Lam chipping in 13 points apiece. Hayden Blankley was the other player who breached double figures with 11.

Overall, Bay Area dissected Blackwater's defense in an excellent precision, shooting a 67-percent clip from the two-point area and 41-percent from beyond the arc. The Dragons even managed to reach the century mark in scoring with still a little over 10 minutes left in the contest.

The loss was also the biggest margin a PBA team had suffered against a guest team and the most lopsided game that happened at the Mall of Asia Arena since 2017.

Blackwater just couldn’t pull off the stops against Powell who was scoring and dishing out assists on his will against the Bossing defenders while the Bossing, on the other hand, struggled to put the ball on the basket on the defensive end.

“We couldn't make shots today and we couldn't stop their transition marami pang dapat iimprove,” said Vanguardia who missed the services of Jvee Casio due to a groin injury and new acquisition Troy Rosario who he opted to rest.

Bay Area’s defense also limited the scoring of Blackwater import Cameron Krutwig who only had 11 points although he had 12 rebounds and eight assists.

“Medyo di pumapasok yung hook shots niya today. Credit the defense, mas malalaki yung mga bumabantay sa kaniya, mga humihelp sa kanya but at times na pinapasa nya, we missed some open shots kaya talagang clinamp na lang siya sa ilalim,” rued Vanguardia.

“We're not making our threes especially in the first half, kahit yung mga easy shots sa paint we missed a lot of those.”