MARQUS Blakely accepted the blame after a lackadaisical debut for Blackwater in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
Blakely scored only four points on Wednesday as the Elite suffered a 135-107 loss at the hands of TNT at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum, and the many-time PBA import said he is to blame for not being the leader that he was supposed to be.
“I’m going to take the blame for today’s game,” said Blakely. “As a leader, I allowed a lot of stuff to happen. From hereon out, I will take it under my wing to hold people accountable on defense, offense, shot selections, not boxing out, whatever it is.
"If we are not going to do those things, I’m going to let you know about it.”
With Blakely struggling while battling cramps that limited him to 28 minutes, rookie Bobby Ray Parks topscored with 39 points, a PBA career-high, but it was not enough to keep the Elite in the game as they trailed by as many as 32 points.
The 30-year-old Blakely, who previously played for the Magnolia and TNT franchises, said the loss should be a learning experience not just to him but also to the entire team.
In order to pick up wins, Blakely said they must buy into the system of head coach Aris Dimaunahan.
“There’s a lot of learnings that we need to do. Being a very young team, making a lot of mistakes, learning from your mistakes will get you better. And tonight, I think one of the main things I think is playing together, trusting in each other, and buying in.
“Those are the things that don’t show on the stats but will show on the scoreboard. When it comes down to stats and understanding that that’s not winning is all about until we buy in. We are young so that’s something we have to continuously work on,” said Blakely.
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