{"id":194751,"date":"2015-03-25T04:00:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T18:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=194751"},"modified":"2015-03-25T04:00:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T18:00:35","slug":"jericho-still-adjusting-after-long-layoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/jericho-still-adjusting-after-long-layoff\/","title":{"rendered":"Jericho still adjusting after long layoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rain or Shine rookie Jericho Cruz returned to action last week to help the Elasto Painters\u2019 ongoing campaign in the Philippine Basketball Association\u2019s Governor\u2019s Cup after nearly a three-month layoff.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/a>
Former CNMI national player Jericho Cruz, left, of Rain or Shine tries to drive past Robby Celiz of Blackwater Elite in their game in the Philippine Basketball Association Governor\u2019s Cup last week. (KC Cruz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The former CNMI national player and Marianas High School alumnus injured his left foot in the Philippine Cup. He was attempting a baseline drive when he heard his foot pop in the Painters\u2019 100-90 win over crowd darling Barangay Ginebra last Dec. 7.<\/p>\n

The former Adamson Falcon, who played his first match against Blackwater Elite this conference, said that it was a bit like his PBA debut as he is still getting a feel of things after being out for almost three months.<\/p>\n

He played for nine minutes in ROS\u2019 102-98 win over Blackwater last Friday and he finished with 4 points on a 1-of-3 shooting from the floor, two free throws, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal.<\/p>\n

Cruz, in the Painters\u2019 119-99 crushing of boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao\u2019s Kia Carnival last Sunday, also scored 4 points on a 2-for-5 field goal shooting with 3 rebounds and 2 turnovers in nine minutes on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel really tired playing for close to 10 minutes in both games. I\u2019m still feeling my way again, getting my rhythm in the game. I don\u2019t want to force myself since I just came from injury,\u201d Cruz told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m getting better now and I\u2019m continuously doing therapy. I\u2019m still trying to get my timing. I know I will play better in the next few games,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Painters\u2019 victories over Blackwater and Kia were part of a three-game winning streak, that included an 82-79 decision over Barangay Ginebra, after suffering a 129-114 crushing from San Miguel Beer on March 13.<\/p>\n

He said that he could have made his return earlier, against San Miguel, but the team\u2019s medical staff prevented him from suiting up in order to not to reinjure his foot.<\/p>\n

Cruz returned to practice with the Painters in the middle of February.<\/p>\n

Cruz, a few days before suffering a fracture on his foot against Ginebra last year, had a breakout game where he helped ROS in pulling off a 98-95 come-from-behind win over Alaska. He scored 10 in the fourth including the Painters\u2019 last 4 points.<\/p>\n

Rain or Shine clinched the top ranking in the PBA\u2019s second conference, which allows teams to have one foreign player, heading in to the playoff round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rain or Shine rookie Jericho Cruz returned to action last week to help the Elasto…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":194754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3212,3213,3214,3215],"class_list":["post-194751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-barangay-ginebra","tag-blackwater-elite","tag-jericho-cruz","tag-ros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194751","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}