Despite coming off the all-time longest break within a conference — the Covid19 pandemic days, excluded — by any PBA team to the tune of 42 days, Meralco was business as usual in its PBA50 Philippine Cup return after its EASL sojourn break, recording three straight wins last week to formalize its place in the playoffs and keep alive its slim hopes for a twice-to-beat incentive in the quarterfinals.
Leading the Bolts in their second three-game win streak of the conference and continuing his having taken over the top-scoring cudgles at Meralco in this new season, the league’s 50th, is CJ Cansino, who is just in his 2nd season in the pros.
The Bolts’ leading scorer this entire conference with his current average of 19.0 points per game, which is also good for fifth overall in the tournament, Cansino started off his back-to-back-to-back Best Player of the Game performances with his 22 points, going 8-of-13 from the field, while adding four rebounds, an assist and a steal in their 88-78 win over Phoenix Wednesday last week at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
The former UP Maroon then followed it up with another team-high 20 points, eight rebounds and a steal in Meralco’s 120-87 rout of Terrafirma two days later at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium before capping the week with a career-high 29 points, five rebounds and an assist while shooting 10 of 17 from the floor in an all-important 105-84 victory over Converge also in Antipolo that improved the Bolts’ record to 6-4.
Against the FiberXers, Cansino had 12 of his points in the first period, outscoring the entire Converge squad by his lonesome as Meralco raced to a commanding 33-7 lead after the first 12 minutes of play en route to the one-sided rout.
“The good thing about CJ is he didn’t just score well but also played defense against (Converge rookie) Juan Gomez de Liano who had to bleed for his points in the fourth quarter,” said Meralco head coach Luigi Trillo.
“CJ’s really been playing well since he recovered from a sprain earlier in the conference,” Trillo added.
For his part, Cansino is only hope they’ll continue to play well heading into the playoffs and once they get there.
“Sana magtuloy-tuloy ang ganda ng sistema na nilalaro namin,” said Cansino, who averaged 23.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in their three games this past week while shooting 56% from the field, inclusive if 37% from three-point range.
Cansino is the first player to win Best Player of the Game honors after every game of his team in a 3-game streak since RR Pogoy did so for TNT Tropang 5G at the start of the playoffs from June 18 to 25 earlier this year in last season’s Philippine Cup.
Cansino’s efforts last week enabled him to unanimously win the PBA Press Corps’ Player of the Week recognition for the period December 10 to 14, handily beating Titan Ultra’s Calvin Abueva and TNT’s Jordan Heading.
