Vanguardia calls out big man Eboña ahead of do-or-die clash vs SMB
Blackwater head coach Ariel Vanguardia urged struggling big man Barkley Eboña to step up ahead of their do-or-die clash against San Miguel Beer on Wednesday, July 27.

Vanguardia said the 6-foot-6 forward should get to his best form in the absence of center Yousef Taha if they wish to extend their tournament lives against the top seed Beermen.
“Barkley has been absent the whole conference because of the (mask) and playing backup to Ular instead of Ular being backup to Barkley. His confidence is low. Nag-miss pa sya ng tying basket,” said Vanguardia referring to Eboña’s botched attempt on a point-blank range against Converge.
Eboña was still nowhere to be found in Blackwater’s loss to Magnolia as it wound up the eliminations with five straight losses
“He played 20 plus minutes without a single rebound, without a single attempt so he's got to man up. I'm calling him out, this is professional basketball you got to love your job,” added the veteran mentor.
“If we are to advance to the next phase, we need Barkley, the old Barkley Eboña from the last conference, the one that won us the game against Magnolia the last conference. The one's active,” he furthered.
Eboña and the rest of Blackwater frontline are expected to have their hands full against the towering big men of SMB that features Best Player of the Conference frontrunner June Mar Fajardo, Mo Tautuaa, Vic Manuel and Rodney Brondial.
“I'm challenging him sabi ko sa kanya when Brandon (Ganuelas-Rosser) had zero rebound, I also said the same thing so he's got to man up.”