Former San Miguel import Cameron Clark leads Hong Kong Eastern in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup. –PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—Hong Kong Eastern’s Cameron Clark showed his familiarity with the league in the squad’s narrow victory over Converge in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at Ninoy Aquino Stadium on Friday night.
Facing a loaded FiberXers squad, Clark played like a man amongst boys in Eastern’s 117-106 win over Converge.
Going up against a squad who also won their first assignment in the import-laden conference, Clark wanted to “lead by example” and he did just that to power the Hong Kong squad to an undefeated start after two outings.
READ: PBA: Cameron Clark leads Hong Kong Eastern to 2-0 start
“I’m just trying to lead by example. I’ve been here a couple times and my guys are new to this but they’ll play hard. I feel like, as long as I lead by example, everybody’s going to fall in line,” said Clark.
“I feel like we’re a great group, we’ll keep fighting and we’ll keep building our chemistry.”
Clark muscled his way to a dominant double-double of 39 points and 15 rebounds built on an efficient 62.5 percent field goal clip.
Clark’s counterpart in the Converge camp Cheick Diallo outscored him with 43 points and nine rebounds but it was the former San Miguel Beer import who had the last laugh at the buzzer.
READ: PBA: Cameron Clark looking forward to play ex-team San Miguel
However, it wasn’t just Clark who pushed Eastern to the win as former Bay Area Dragons Hayden Blankley, Glen Yang and Kobey Lam scored 21, 19 and 14, respectively.
“We have a lot of guys who can shoot the ball and create and I think coach (Mensur Bajramovic) puts us in the right positions to make plays and I feel like we did a good job today in sharing the ball, penetrating, passing and knocking down shots,” Clark said.
Bajramovic, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of Clark alongside Blankley, Lam and Yang, who have all had their taste of PBA action in the past.
“[They’re] very important. They bring us a lot. What’s also important is they are good people, good guys and great players. I’m trying to look into the future and they’re there,” said Bajramovic.
“What is very important is they are doing well together [with Clark] and they’re trying to work together and that’s the most important thing. Mistakes are allowed, of course,” he added.