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PBA: HK Eastern improves to 4-1 after beating Blackwater
The Hong Kong Eastern relied on their new import Chris McLaughlin who delivered a monster 32 points and 23 rebounds in his PBA Season 49 Commissioners' Cup debut to defeat the Blackwater Bossing, 84-75, on Tuesday night, December 10, at the Filoil EcoOil Centre in San Juan.
It was the fourth win for the Hong Kong-based squad in their first five games in the league.
The 6-foot-10 McLaughlin took over the reinforcement chores from Cameron Clark, who was sidelined by a hip flexor muscle injury.
Clark led the Eastern squad in their three wins of the conference, including the 105-84 domination against TNT Tropang Giga last Friday.
Eastern seemed like missing Clark in the first half of play as Blackwater erected a 10-point lead at the break.
But the Hong Kong squad posted a 27-9 third quarter surge to grab the lead and maintained it until the final buzzer.
McLaughlin, who averaged 22 markers and 13 boards in Eastern's two assignments in the East Asia Super League, continued what Clark started in the PBA's mid-season tournament.
Photo Courtesy: PBA
"Coming to the game, I wanted to keep it simple - take care of the paint, rebound, play defense and the rest of the game will come to me naturally," said McLaughlin.
"I've been here in Manila training with the team every practice and preparing for the moment in case I was called up to play so I stayed ready the whole time," he added.
Glen Yang put up 14 and Kobey Lam added 10 to help McLaughlin get his first ever win in the first play-for-pay league in Asia.
The win lifted Eastern to solo third place behind unbeaten NorthPort (4-0) and Meralco (3-0).
Meanwhile, George King exploded for 41 points for the Bossing. He already had 31 in the first half but was only limited to four in the third canto and six in the payoff period.
Blackwater dropped their third straight game to remain winless in the conference.
The Scores:
EASTERN 84 - McLaughlin 32, Yang 14, Lam 10, Guinchard 8, Xu 7, Cheung 5, Cao 4, Blankley 2, Pok 2, Chan 0, Zhu 0.
BLACKWATER 75 - King 41, Barefield 9, Suerte 9, Chua 4, Kwekuteye 4, David 4, Ilagan 3, Ponferrada 1, Casio 0, Hill 0, Guinto 0, Escoto 0.
Quarter scores: 23-21, 39-49, 66-58, 84-75.
