By Waylon Galvez
San Miguel Beer’s do-it-all guard Chris Ross was all smiles when he entered the pressroom Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
And who would not be?
For the second straight game, the Beermen played with murder in their eyes and romped to a 132-94 victory opposite Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in Game 3 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals.
With blood dripping from a patch on his forehead due to a cut, Ross delivered once again a dazzling performance to help the reigning champion SMB take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
“It’s a pretty ugly gush,” said the 6-foot-2 Ross, who posted 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals in nearly 36 minutes of action.
Ross sustained the cut from an inadvertent elbow from Renaldo Balkman – his teammate import – with less than a minute left in the second quarter. When he got up, Ross – covering his left eye – ran towards the team locker room.
There the SMB medical staff patched him up to stop the bleeding.
From a 53-51 advantage at halftime, SMB took a 92-72 lead as Ross joined hands with Balkman, who scored 13 of his 28 points in the third period while adding 11 rebounds, five assists and three shot blocks.
“I’ve played against coach Tim (Cone) long enough to know that he’s going to challenge me today. Last game I only took one shot. I prepared for that yesterday (during the SMB practice session). I got lots of shots up. I just stepped up,” added Ross.
As for his three-point shooting, where he converted 7-of-13 from the area, Ross said it was about taking the shot with confidence.
“I was open, I saw the rim. I just kept shooting,” said the Filipino-American guard. “Even if I missed a few, I just kept shooting, kept shooting, kept shooting. I think I’ve shot the most threes I have in my career in one game.”
