Arwind Santos showed flashes of his MVP form in his San Miguel Beermen season debut versus the Columbian Dyip last Friday. He put up a career-high-tying 34 points on 13-of-19 shooting along with seven rebounds and four blocks.
But San Miguel lost, 118-124.
So two nights later, Santos tried to switch his role. From being a primary source of the Beermen’s offense, the 37-year-old became their a defensive anchor, when San Miguel took on arch-nemeses Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
And it paid huge dividends.
Despite blowing a huge 23-point advantage, Santos and the Beermen downed the crowd darlings in thrilling fashion, 99-91, to avenge their sorry loss to Columbian and barge into the all-Filipino conference’s win column.
Santos only had six points, but he filled up the stat sheet with two rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and a steal in the 30 minutes he played.
“Nag-adjust lang ako personally. Nakita ko umiskor nga ako ng thirty-four points pero talo pa rin kami, so sinubukan kong baliktarin yung trabaho ko.
“Dumepensa muna ako. Pagka may libre lang ako sa mga shots, tira lang ako,” he said.
“Pero hangga’t maari, pakita ko sa mga kasama ko yung depensa para ma-encourage ko sila. Yun. Mabuti naman naging maganda yung epekto,” Santos added, as San Miguel forced Ginebra into 22 turnovers.
His performance drew high praise from head coach Leo Austria. “Even if Arwind is not scoring heavily, makikita niyo how he played defense. Kinommend ko siya noong first half dahil talagang napakaganda. And contagious ang ginagawa niya.”
With the Beermen now on the right track, Santos hopes they will be able to keep their defensive tenacity.
“Sobrang nasaktan kami sa unang talo namin eh. Lahat kami expected namin na panalo na yung game – yung unang game – pero nabigo kami. Siyempre dahil nabigo kami, tinignan namin kung bakit kami natalo especially on defense,” shared the seven-time PBA champion.
“So yun, kahit papano nakuha namin, na-pick up naman namin yung dapat namin gawin. Kaya ang ganda ng ni-run namin – halos hindi nakalamang ang Ginebra samin. Ang ganda ng depensa namin,” he added.
“Sana ma-maintain namin defense namin hanggang sa dulo ng laban.”
