SAN Miguel Beer guard Chris Ross' best games of the season seems to come at the expense of Alaska, and his outstanding all-around performance against the Aces on Friday didn't go unnoticed as he earned his first Accel-PBA Press Corps Player of the Week for the period of March 15-20.
The six-foot playmaker was in his element against Alaska on Friday, finishing with 14 points, 12 assists and six rebounds as the Beermen hacked out a 116-96 victory in a rematch of between the Philippine Cup finalists.
The Beermen played without reigning two-time league MVP June Mar Fajardo, who was nursing a right knee injury, but that hardly mattered as the team rained down 17 three-pointers en route to the blowout victory.
But while Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot, Marcio Lassiter and import Tyler Wilkerson were on fire from deep, Ross stood out as the glue of the team despite not contributing to the long-range shootout, as he distributed the ball and ran the offense of the talented Beermen.
“I put in so much hard work everyday, after practice with Marcio,” said Ross, who was named the Finals MVP of the all-Filipino conference championship series.
“Coach has a lot of trust in me because he’s leaving me out there for a lot of minutes,” he added. “I feel like I have the easiest job in the PBA because I have so many weapons and we were clicking on all cylinders (against Alaska).”
The 31-year-old Ross beat teammate Alex Cabagnot, Barangay Ginebra’s Greg Slaughter and LA Tenorio, Star forward Allein Maliksi, Meralo rookie Baser Amer and Rain or Shine shooter Jeff Chan for the weekly citation.
San Miguel swings back to action on Easter Sunday when the Beermen clash with sister team and streaking Star Hotshots at the Smart Araneta Coliseum