MANILA, Philippines—Sean Anthony just had one of the best games of his career but he was quick to downplay his individual brilliance and instead chose to praise his teammates rather than focus on himself.
The do-it-all forward posted an all-around performance that consisted of 22 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and seven steals in NorthPort’s 95-90 win over NLEX but Anthony said it wasn’t just him who came up big for his team.
“It’s not an individual performance and I think the whole team stepped up today as you saw,” said Anthony Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “That has been the big difference for us so far, having a lot of guys step up.”
“I think we have multiple guys who scored on double figures, which is huge. We’re not really reliant on just a couple of players,” added Anthony.
Anthony did have three more teammates who put more than 10 points in the game with rookie third overall pick Robert Bolick putting up 14 points while big man Moala Tautuaa had 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Stanley Pringle also finished in double figures with 11 points with nine rebounds and two steals.
Anthony may have downplayed any praises directed at him but his head coach Pido Jarencio was more than willing to give his player the due accolade.
“That kind of performance is natural to him, he’s the player that really fights,” said Jarencio in Filipino. “He’s the consistent player among us and even though he came off the bench he still delivered.”
Jarencio also used Anthony on a different capacity since he bumped the small forward to the power forward spot to create a speed mismatch against NLEX’ big men in Poy Erram and JR Quiñahan.
Anthony admitted that he was at the disadvantage in terms of size since his 6-foot-4 frame is four-inches shorter than Erram’s and his 200-lb body weighs less than Quiñahan’s 235-lb.
Still, he used his speed to outplay the bigger players of the Road Warriors.
“As a 4, I’m undersized compared to the other 4s but I think what we lack in size we make up for in speed, heart, hustle, that kind of stuff,” said Anthony. “Mo stepped up and Brad [Guinto] had a great game last time.”
“I think our bigs are doing alright and we match up with some real tough bigs in Quiñahan and Erram ad we held our own tonight.”