MANILA, Philippines – Blackwater head coach Ariel Vanguardia put it plain and simple: Barkley Eboña needs to step up if the team wants to overcome twice-to-beat San Miguel in the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals.

Vanguardia challenged Eboña to raise his level of play as the Bossing bank on him to ease the absence of injured big man Yousef Taha in their quarterfinal clash against June Mar Fajardo and the Beermen.

Fresh from missing a crucial point-blank shot in their loss to Converge, Eboña went scoreless and failed to grab a rebound in their 75-66 defeat to Magnolia on Friday, July 22, to wrap up the elimination round.

“If we are to advance to the next phase, we need the old Barkley Eboña from last conference, the one that won us the game against Magnolia last conference,” Vanguardia said, referring to the clutch shot the third-year big man hit against the Hotshots in the Governors’ Cup last season to help the Bossing snap a historic 29-game skid.

“[We need the Barkley] who is active, not the Barkley who has zero rebounds. I’m just challenging him.”

The former FEU Tamaraws standout averaged 7.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in the Governors’ Cup.

But those numbers have dipped to 3.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in the Philippine Cup as he took a step back following the emergence of rookie sensation Ato Ular, who leads Blackwater in scoring with 14.1 points on top of 8.1 rebounds.

It also does not help that Eboña is forced to play with a face mask after undergoing surgery to fix his broken nose.

Vanguardia, though, said now is the time for Eboña to snap out of his funk as the Bossing look to extend their campaign.

“Barkley has been absent the whole conference. It started with the mask and then him playing backup to Ular instead of Ular playing backup to Barkley. His confidence is low,” Vanguardia said.

“He missed a tying basket. Today, he played 20-plus minutes without a single rebound and a single attempt, so he has got to man up. I’m calling him out. This is professional basketball, you got to love your job.”

Blackwater will tangle with top seed San Miguel on Wednesday, July 27, at the Araneta Coliseum. – Rappler.com