ANTIPOLO – CJ Cansino have had some success defending star rookie Juan Gomez de Liano in Meralco’s 21-point demolition of Converge in their PBA Philippine Cup match-up on Sunday night.
After putting Chris Banchero and Chris Newsome early on against the No. 2 overall pick in the last rookie draft, the Bolts decided to give Cansino a shot at defending JGdL after the latter scored six points early in the fourth quarter as he tried to will the FiberXers back into the game at the Ynares Center.
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The sophomore guard out of State U and University of Santo Tomas put the clamps on de Liano, helping the Bolts take the 105-84 win on their way to a berth in the quarterfinals.
Cansino, who finished with a career-high 29 points in spearheading Meralco’s sixth win in 10 outings, later disclosed he’s used to defending De Liano since work out under the same skills coach.
“Lagi kasi kaming magkasama na nag-i-skills. Lagi kami nag one-on-one kasi same kami ng skills coach, so medyo may alam na rin ako kung paano siya depensahan one-on-one,” he said.
De Liano eventually finished with 27 points in a losing cause for the FiberXers, including nine in the fourth period, but was held to just three when Cansino began to cover him.
Coach Luigi Trillo lauded the good defensive job Cansino did against de Liano, who played under different batches of the Fighting Maroons.
“I think more than CJ scoring, what he could be proud about is dinepensahan niya si De Liano sa huli,” Trillo said. “I think what’s good about him (Cansino) was he played defense, too. He had to guard De Liano in that fourth quarter.”
Cansino, who averaged 23.6 points in all three wins of Meralco in the last five days, said it’s his defense which he’s actually trying to improve at the moment, given that his scoring has always been there.
“Lagi namang ganun ang sinasabi ng mga coaches ko na kailangan kong maging two-way player talaga. So coming to the league yun talaga ang wino-workout ko. Sabi ko hindi puwedeng pagpanik ko sa PBA ako pa rin yung inaatake sa depensa,” he said.
“So lagi kong tsina-challenge yung sarili ko.”
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