{"id":187085,"date":"2014-12-11T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T18:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=187085"},"modified":"2014-12-11T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T18:00:11","slug":"jericho-philippine-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/jericho-philippine-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Jericho out for Philippine Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jericho<\/a>
Jericho Cruz celebrates with teammate Jonathan Uyloan, partly hidden, after Rain or Shine\u2019s win against Alaska. Cruz, however, will miss the remainder of the postseason after suffering a bone fracture on his left foot. (KC Cruz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nJericho Cruz saw his rookie season with Rain or Shine cut short after he injured his foot during the Elasto Painters\u2019 100-90 win over Barangay Ginebra in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup last Dec. 7 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.<\/p>\n

Cruz, who about a week ago earned Best Player of the Game honors in Rain or Shine\u2019s come-from-behind 98-95 victory over Alaska, fractured his foot after attempting to drive to the basket.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old former Adamson Falcon, the ninth overall pick in this year\u2019s draft, said he was driving to the baseline when he accidentally fell down and heard his foot pop.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I didn\u2019t feel it maybe because of the adrenaline rush. I still played and even run up and down the court like 5 to 6 times. After that, that\u2019s when I felt the pain,\u201d Cruz told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

Ginebra big man Jay-R Reyes was defending Cruz when the ROS guard was attempting for a baseline drive. Jonathan Uyloan was tapped to check in for Cruz after the latter signaled to the Elasto Painters\u2019 bench that he needed to be replaced midway in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told coach Yeng Guiao that I can no longer play, I can\u2019t stay inside the court, because the pain was killing me. It was unbearable. So he instructed my teammates to foul to force a deadball situation so I could get subbed,\u201d the PBA rookie said.<\/p>\n

Cruz then went to the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital in San Juan City after the game for a check-up and doctors found out that he suffered a fracture on his left foot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m out for the rest of the semifinals and if ever finals,\u201d added Cruz, who usually comes off the bench for Rain or Shane and is one of the best rookies in open court.<\/p>\n

Cruz posted per game averages of 8.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.9 steals. He had his best game in the conference in that win over Alaska as he finished with 16 markers, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals to earn Best Player of the Game honors.<\/p>\n

Cruz\u2019s injury could pose problems in Guiao\u2019s rotation since shooting guard Chris Tiu and forward Jervy Cruz are still out with injuries.<\/p>\n

Rain or Shine, after a 99-76 thrashing they received from Talk \u2018N Text last month, swept their last seven games to finish tied with San Miguel Beermen in first place with their similar 9-2 records and earn the first two automatic semifinals berths. The Beermen clinched the top ranking and relegated the Elasto Painters to No. 2 by virtue of their 87-79 win over the latter early in the conference. (Jon Perez)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jericho Cruz saw his rookie season with Rain or Shine cut short after he injured…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":187111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[133,38],"class_list":["post-187085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-run","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}