MANILA, Philippines — Eastern’s heart-stopping 93-90 win over crowd favorite Barangay Ginebra was aided by the inputs coach Mensur Bajramovic got from Hayden Blankley, Kobey Lam and Glen Yang.
You see, Blankley, the 24-year-old sweet-shooting forward, along with Lam and Yang were all members of the Bay Area Dragons that lost to the Gin Kings in an epic seven-game Finals battle in the 2023 Commissioner’s Cup.
And having gained tons of experience playing against Ginebra and its legion of supporters, the 6-foot-6 Blankley said he, and his two other former Bay Area stalwarts helped their Eastern head coach in the game preparation heading into Sunday’s titanic clash.
“Glen, Kobey and I have varied experience against the same (Ginebra) system so we try throughout this week in practice to add to coach’s plans,” Blankley said, shortly after Eastern hacked out that three-point win against Ginebra in their Commissioner’s Cup collision on Sunday in Antipolo.
“We gave out little tips on personnel, like individual players and what we can do in that’s system. That experience helped and the mental toughness I guess because we battled against them for seven games in front of this crowd before,” he added.
Blankley and the Dragons back then, had to endure playing before a hostile crowd, numbering to 54,589 fans, who came to cheer for the Gin Kings in Game 7.
The massive turnout set a new PBA single-game attendance record in league history.
“I was able to walk out the crowd and noise because I’ve done it in the whole playoff series (before).
And that helped,” he added.
Blankley sure gained tons of experience since the Finals defeat to Ginebra, as he led Eastern with 25 points, spiked by five three-point shots.
The former West Texas A&M University stalwart had eight of Eastern 20 points in the last period to help quell Ginebra’s late-game rally.
Eastern improved to 5-1 overall and will shift its attention against San Miguel Beer, which the foreign PBA guest squad will face this coming Wednesday in their East Asia Super League home-and-away Season 2 game in Hong Kong.
