GUEST team Eastern quickly wheeled back on track in the PBA Season 49 Commissioner's Cup, doing it at the expense of debuting TNT, 105-84, Friday night at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The club from Hong Kong unleashed a 26-16 salvo in the third quarter to zoom away from the shorthanded Tropang Giga and set the tone for the redeeming victory off its 81-99 loss to Rain or Shine last Wednesday.
Ramon Cao was at the center of that telling breakaway in the penultimate period, where he banged in 12 of his 17 en route to Player of the Game honors.
Cao provided a big lift to Eastern import Cameron Clark and veterans Hayden Blankley and Glen Yang. Clark netted 36 that went with 14 rebounds while Blankley, in a bounceback from his seven-point outing against ROS, rifled in 24 plus 10 boards and Yang, returning after missing the last game due to passport issues, dropped 19-6-8.
Eastern jacked up its record to 3-1 overall and forced TNT to a 0-1 start a month after lifting the Governors' Cup trophy.
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"We didn't play well in our last game against Rain or Shine so all of us were mad after the game. So we analyzed, watched videos and figured out what exactly was the problem.
Our defense wasn't on the level we're expecting. And tonight, we actually did against a very good team (TNT)," said coach Mensur Bajramovic.
"Main reason why we controlled this game was we rotated well on defense, we switched well. And offensively, ball movement was much, much better than last game. This is the key and I think if we continue like this, we have a chance," he added.
Eastern pulled this off despite arriving at the NAS behind schedule after getting caught in traffic from its hotel in Quezon City. The squad did their pre-game routines inside the bus and went straight to the court for the warmups upon arrival at the Malate venue.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson fired 33 together with seven rebounds as he carried the brunt of scoring for a TNT squad that missed the services of veterans Jayson Castro and Kelly Williams and even lost Poy Erram to ejection in the first canto.
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Erram was slapped a flagrant foul penalty two infraction for his hit on Yang at the 7:48 mark. (OL)
The Scores:
Eastern 105 - Clark 36, Blankley 24, Yang 19, Cao 17, Lam 3, Cheung 3, Xu 2, Zhu 1, Sulaiman 0, Chan 0, Guinchard 0
TNT 84 - Hollis-Jefferson 33, Aurin 12, Pogoy 9, Oftana 7, Khobuntin 4, Ebona 4, Erram 4, Exciminiano 4, Galinato 3, Razon 2, Nambatac 2, Heruela 0, Varilla 0, Payawal 0.
Quarters: 21-22, 47-47, 73-63, 105-84
