EASTERN gave TNT a rude reception in its PBA Commissioner’s Cup debut, dealing the newly crowned Governors' Cup champions a sound 105-84 beating to get back on the winning track on Friday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Cameron Clark, Hayden Blankley, and Glen Yang teamed up in blowing out the Tropang Giga, who are coming off a successful championship campaign capped by a win over crowd favorite Barangay Ginebra in six games in the finals.
Eastern improved to a 3-1 record as it bounced back from a 99-81 loss to Rain or Shine just last Wednesday in a game where it missed the services of Yang owing to a passport hitch upon the return of the guest team from Hong Kong last Tuesday.
Ramon Cao also joined the Eastern party with 17 points on 2-of-3 shooting from three-point range, while taking on Best Import Rondae Hollis Jefferson on the defensive end.
READ Poy Erram ejected for flagrant foul on Glenn Yang in TNT debut
"The last game, we actually didn't play good against Rain or Shine. It wasn't the style of how we play," said Eastern coach Mensur Bajramovic of his team's first PBA loss against the Elasto Painters.
'Today we did (well) against a very good team. it's a style we tried to play similarly with a lot of ball movements. They played tough too, defensively and offensively. And it's really a test for us."
Clark led Eastern with his 36 points and 14 rebounds, while going 3-of-4 from long range, Blankley had a similar double-double of 24 points and 10 rebounds, while Yang added 19 points, six rebounds, and eight assists.
TNT came out a bit sluggish after playing their first game in almost a month, and didn't exactly have a good start when veteran big man Poy Erram was ejected at the 7:48 mark of the first quarter following a flagrant foul penalty 2 on Yang.
The Tropang Giga managed to hold their own and levelled the count at 47 by halftime.
But they couldn't keep pace in the second half when Eastern held them to just 16 points in the third period to finally take control of the match.
An emphatic two-handed slam by Blankley yo start the fourth period gave Eastern a 75-63 lead, which eventually ballooned to its biggest at 99-75.
A visibly frustrated TNT coach Chot Reyes was later called for a technical foul while complaining about a non-call. Soon after, he began to recall his major players to the bench and fielded his second unit comprised of Chris Exciminiano, Henry Galinato, Kim Aurin, Paul Varilla, and debuting rookie Jielo Razon.
Hollis-Jefferson had 33 points and seven rebounds to show the way for TNT, but also committed four of the team's total of 15 turnovers.
The scores:
Eastern (105) - Clark 36, Blankely 24, Yang 19, Cao 17, Cheung 3, Lam 3, Xu 2, Zhu 1, Guinchard 0, Sulaiman 0, Chan 0.
TNT (84) - Hollis-Jefferson 33, Aurin 12, Pogoy 9, Oftana 7, Exciminiano 4, Ebona 4, Erram 4, Galinato 3, Razon 2, Nambatac 2, Heruela 0, Varilla 0, Payawal 0.
Quarterscores: 21-22; 47-47; 73-63; 105-84.
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