Jericho Cruz earned his first Accel-PBA Press Corps Player of the Week award following his heads-up play in Rain or Shine's come-from-behind 118-112 win over Barangay Ginebra last Friday.
Cruz fired 11 of his 19 points in the final period in a dominant offensive display to underscore his status as one of the league's fastest rising gunners.
The 2016 Most Improved Player played a solid supporting role to comebacking Rain or Shine import Duke Crews in the second half to help the Asian Coating franchise snap a two-game skid.
At 5-4, the Elasto Painters now enhanced their quarterfinals bid heading to their last two games in the single-round eliminations.
The six-foot Cruz, who added 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists, bested a slew of candidates for the weekly citation led by San Miguel's Alex Cabagnot and Arwind Santos, Star combo guard Paul Lee, GlobalPort's Stanley Pringle and TNT's Jayson Castro.
