WATCH: Jericho Cruz Highlights [San Miguel vs Converge | June 26, 2022]

San Miguel bounced back from a disappointing loss to Brgy. Ginebra last Friday via lopsided 111-92 victory over Converge, Sunday night in the elimination round of the PBA Season 47 Philippine Cup at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.

Jericho Cruz stepped up big time in the absence of teammates Terrence Romeo and Chris Ross and paced the Beermen with 22 points on 9-of-17 shooting including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc to go with 6 rebounds and 3 steals in 29 minutes of action.

“I told them we have to bounce back hard against this team. We know na Converge hindi pwedeng biruin makikita naman natin na some of the future stars ay nasa sa kanila,” said SMB coach Leo Austria during the post-game press conference.

“It’s a great motivation mga nakikita namin na potential sa kanila an if we will make a good game today pwede namin dalhin in our next few games kasi sunud-sunod ang games namin,” he added.

Mo Tautuaa finished with a double-double of 19 points and 10 boards while June Mar Fajardo added 18 markers and a game-high 16 rebounds to go with an assist, 3 steals and 4 rejections.

CJ Perez notched his first career triple-double, and the league’s first for the new season, with 15 points, 13, rebounds and 12 assists plus 3 steals and a block.

Marcio Lassiter contributed 12 points with 9 coming from long distance while Mike Canete and Paul Zamar had 10 and 9 points, respectively.

The Beermen’s next game is against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Wednesday, June 29, 6:00pm at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.