STRANGER THINGS
RODRIGUEZ, Rizal—Terrafirma is off to a rare 2-0 start after pulling a big one over Converge in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup in this faraway town on Saturday.
Overjoyed by the way their import carried them in a 111-100 overtime upset of the FiberXers, the Dyip replicated the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder by joining Ali Mubashar during his postgame interview on television.
The 7-foot import from Finland put up a monster effort of 50 points after knocking down shots from inside and out on top of 25 rebounds and his teammates made sure his performance was well-appreciated.
“The whole point is the fact that thanks to the staff, our head coach, our assistant coaches, everybody’s bringing this good environment, fun environment to work in,” the oft-smiling and entertaining Mubashar said. “Every day we come into work, it’s fun. Everything we do is straight quality. We try to execute the best we can and stay together.
“The main thing is to stay together. Even in the [postgame interview], you see us staying together to the end. That’s the most important thing,” added Mubashar, whose performance came despite still observing the holy month of Ramadan and dealing with cramps.
The Dyip won back-to-back games for the first time since the 2024 Philippine Cup, the last time the franchise made the playoffs. Terrafirma has often floundered in tournaments, where it was common to find the team nailed to the bottom of the standings and weighed down by long losing streaks.
This time, the Dyip find themselves on top—for now.
Scoreless
They started off the campaign with a win over Titan Ultra on Wednesday, but beating Converge seemed unlikely, much less in the manner in which they won.
Terrafirma almost blew its chance when 6-foot-9 rookie Geo Chiu missed two attempts underneath, only for Mubashar to score what would turn out to be the basket that forced a 100-all tie at the end of regulation.
Then, the FiberXers, despite their perceived status as contenders with all the firepower they added before the conference started, went scoreless in the extra period.
“We’re hungry and that’s the culture that we’re establishing,” said coach Ronald Tubid, whose team will go for three straight on Wednesday against Blackwater in Antipolo.
Converge fell to 1-1, despite six players in double figures led by the 17 of import Kylor Kelley, the FiberXers’ 7-footer, who had 22 rebounds.
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