Prince Caperal has taken a back seat in the PBA Philippine Cup.

Named the Most Improved Player after helping Barangay Ginebra rule the all-Filipino conference last season, Caperal saw his minutes dwindle this year as the team added star big man Christian Standhardinger.

But when called upon, Caperal delivers.

Caperal churned out a game-high 19 points as Ginebra clinched the last quarterfinal seat with a 95-85 win over Phoenix in their one-game playoff on Saturday, September 25.

“I trust coach and coach trusts us. I work hard no matter if I play or not. I’m always ready,” Caperal said in Filipino.

Prior to his finest performance of the conference, Caperal hit a slump as he went scoreless in their last three games, a stretch that left Ginebra on the brink of elimination.

But with their title-retention bid on the line, Caperal found his footing, knocking down a team-high 3 triples and hauling down 4 boards.

It was a timely resurgence from Caperal as Ginebra badly missed the presence of ace forward Japeth Aguilar, who has been ruled out for the rest of the Philippine Cup due to a knee injury.

“Coach always tells us that when a player is down, we need to have a next-man-up mentality. That has been my mantra ever since. When a teammate is down, I have to step up to the game plan,” Caperal said.

“We showed what Ginebra is about in this game.”

The road to a title repeat only gets tougher for Ginebra as it needs to win two in a row in the quarterfinals against TNT, which owns a twice-to-beat advantage as the top seed. – Rappler.com