ANTIPOLO CITY – For Hayden Blankley, experience and the thought that he had seen and done this before helped him and his team beat Barangay Ginebra, whose raucous crowd support oftentimes alter the dynamics of a game.
Not this time though.
Blankly blocked out the noise and proceeded to play his unhurried and deliberate game to help Eastern hand Ginebra a 93-90 loss in the PBA 40th Season Commissioner’s Cup Sunday.
The 24-year-old forward had seen it all before, having engaged Ginebra in a seven-game Commissioner's Cup Finals in 2023 when he played for the Bay Area Dragons. The Gin Kings won before a crowd of 54,589 at the Philippine Arena that established the league’s all-time record.
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Sunday night, Blankley had a team-high 25 points as he led Eastern in posting its third straight win. And he credited the lessons learned from past matches against PBA teams as having contributed to their recent wins.
“Glen (Yang), Kobey (Lam), and I are experienced against a lot of those guys [and] with the same system,” said Blankley. “After the Blackwater game, we tried to add what coach’s plans were, give our little tips on the personnel, like the individual players and what we could do with their system. That experience helped.”
“And just the mental toughness I guess because we’ve battled them before in seven games, in front of this crowd before. For me, I think I was able to help block out the crowd and the noise because I’ve done it in a whole playoff series two years ago,” said Blankley.
Eastern coach Mensur Bajramovic said the entire team also accepted the challenge of playing before a hostile crowd for the first time.
Bajramovic said the nerves obviously got to the team especially in the late stages of the game when they missed a couple of free throws, with Eastern missing 11 of 25 from the foul line.
But overall, Bajramovic said it was an experience that they enjoyed immensely.
“To be honest, for some of the guys, it's even the first time to play in front of these fans. Obviously, you saw we missed a lot of free throws in important moments because of it,” said Bajramovic.
“Of course, it's a great experience for all of us. I enjoy being here in the Philippines to play basketball. I enjoy any contact (with people) from the street and anywhere. The people are following basketball.
"We are all basketball guys. We are living basketball and we are happy when we see everybody likes basketball. When you win some games, you should be happy. You cannot ask for more,” he added.
Blankley’s performance against Ginebra also came as a confidence boost after he shot 9-for-14 from the field in the Eastern win, bouncing back from a horrible 1-for-9 night in their previous win against Blackwater.
“The last game, not a very good one, but we got the win,” the former West Texas A&M product said. “I actually sat down with coach just briefly before one of our practices, had a good little chat, heart-to-heart. I’m still very new to the team. I feel like I’m getting used to his coaching style, getting used to playing with some of the guys.”
“Sometimes, I put a lot of pressure on myself if things aren't going right away. He just gave me some advice earlier in practice this week just to work on my mental toughness and be ready for the next play and not to be so down on myself and put so much pressure on myself. I think today, I just let the game come to me.”
“I just kept playing. Whether I missed a shot, whether I made a mistake defensively today, I just kept going. There was nothing really in terms of extra shooting practice or anything. It was more mentally or a mindset thing that coach helped me and the rest of the guys helped me with after the last game. They helped me regain that confidence,” he added.
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