The San Miguel Beermen still have a long way to go, believes Chris Ross
Consistency has been the only thing hindering the San Miguel Beermen from being unstoppable this season. Coach Leo Autria has always preached this to his players, wanting to see 48 minutes of non-stop basketball from the Beermen.
Against the Meralco Bolts on Wednesday evening, the two-time defending Philippine Cup champions were dominant — leading in all but seven minutes of the tilt. And it was because of their excellent guard play.
“We wanted to end the year right and go with a win, try to stay at the top of the standings. You don’t want to go on the New Year with a loss,” reigning Defensive Player of the Year Chris Ross remarked.
“It’s a huge morale boost for us. I just told the guys to go out and put it all out there. We got a week off, so we can come back at it next year.”
The troika of Ross, Marcio Lassiter, and Alex Cabagnot finished in double-figures, with the former tallying his conference-high with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting with five assists and six steals.
However, lead floor general Cabagnot suffered a broken nose early in the third canto after being caught up by Cliff Hodge. Seeing this, the 31-year-old defensive specialist needed to step up.
“I knew I had to step my game up when Alex went out. When I found out that Alex went to the hospital, I knew I had to step my game up and their whole game plan was to stop June Mar [Fajardo]
“The guards, we took it upon ourselves to help June Mar and Arwind and we’re happy that we’re able to produce,” said Ross, who played for Meralco from 2010 to 2013.
Even after stringing together four straight wins, Ross believes that they have yet to reach their peak. With four games remaining, he knows that they can find that extra gear heading into the playoffs.
“We still have time to reach our peak. You don’t want to peak too early and you don’t want to peak too late. Hopefully, we want to peak at the right time. At the beginning of the conference, we we’re starting slow and finishing strong. And now, we’re starting strong and finishing slow, so we have a few games before the playoffs to put it all together,” the three-time PBA champion said.
“Hopefully, we’ll ride that peak going to the playoffs.”
