New import EJ Anosike showed what he is capable of as he powered San Miguel to a Game 1 quarterfinal win over Converge in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup.
A new face in EJ Anosike saw action for San Miguel in PBA Season 49 Governors' Cup playoffs.
It was not that former reinforcement Jordan Adams played poorly, thus the need for replacement.
It was just the Beermen did not want to risk aggravating Adams' hamstring injury, according to coach Jorge Gallent.
"'Yung games now kasi it’s going to be every other day. Everybody knows 'yung hamstring is traydor 'yan, eh. If it comes, there’s going to be a few games we won’t play with an import,” Gallent said.
“As what I told you, the doctor said in case he (Adams) plays hard, baka maging tear. So we just didn’t want to put that in consideration, eh. At saka for his career also: we’re going to force him to play hard tapos he might tear his hamstring.
“We changed Jordan because of the injury. It’s not because of his performance."
Adams complemented the Beermen. And if circumstances were different, SMB would have stuck with the high-scoring import.
But Anosike seemed tailor-fit for the squad, too.
In his debut, the Nigerian-American impressed with 28 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in San Miguel's 102-95 win over Converge to open their best-of-five quarterfinals on Thursday, Sept. 26.
“I feel good. It’s the first game with the team, how we got the win in Game 1. Looking forward to competing in Game 2 and keep this thing going,” Anosike said.
His PBA welcome did not go as smoothly, though, as he was called for a flagrant foul penalty 1 in the 4:02 mark of the fourth as he hit Alec Stockton on the face with his elbow as the reinforcement jostled for the rebound.
This posed a problem for the Beermen, who, as Anosike headed to sit out for three minutes on the bench, saw their 90-85 lead nearly dissipate.
With San Miguel forced to field in an all-Filipino crew, the FiberXers pounced on the opportunity and unleashed a 12-4 counterattack capped by a JL Delos Santos trey to close in at 95-99 with 57.7 ticks left to play.
As both teams misfired thereafter, Anosike returned to the court with 23.9 seconds remaining. He canned a pair of free throws 10 seconds later to hike the separation, 101-95.
The goal is to keep improving, according to Anosike.
“I will say I give my 100 percent every game. There are some games that’s going to be better than others. I try to improve every game that I play,” he said.
Game 2 is set on Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.