MANILA, Philippines – CJ Perez perfectly juggled his act training with Gilas Pilipinas and playing for San Miguel Beer in the PBA Governors’ Cup.
Regularly attending the weekly practice of the national team for the coming sixth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers window, Perez has not skipped a beat, too in being the most consistent force for the Beermen in their sizzling 4-0 campaign to start the season-ending meet.
The 6-foot-2 gunner registered 17.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists in a three-game stretch, thus gaining the nod as the Cignal Play-PBA Press Corps Player of the Week for the period February 1-5.
His steady numbers helped the Beermen sweep all of their three games in a week against Blackwater, Terrafirma, and Magnolia to catch Converge and NLEX on top of the standings with identical 4-0 slates.
Perez, the top overall pick in the 2018 PBA Draft, sparked his week by putting up 14 points, six rebounds, and five assists in only 28 minutes of play as SMB cruised to a 105-86 win over Blackwater.
Against Terrafirma, the Pangasinan pride had a near triple-double of 20 markers, 11 boards, and six dimes on top of a steal and a block as the Beermen blew off the Dyip, 122-102.
There was no stopping the Gilas mainstay even against the hungry Hotshots as he fired 17 points, six rebounds, and three assists in a close 100-98 win as SMB stayed unbeaten.
Perez bested NLEX’s Anthony Semerad and Barangay Ginebra’s Nards Pinto for the weekly honor being handed out by print and online media regularly covering the PBA beat.