The battle for Best Player of the Conference (BPC) in the season-opening Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup is down to two players, San Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo and Globalport’s Stanley Pringle.
The 6-10 Fajardo still leads the race with 45.6 Statistical Points, while the 6-1 Pringle moved up from fourth spot to No. 3 as the sophomore guard of Batang Pier now has 38.1 SPs.
With their respective teams in the semifinals, with defending champion SMB up against Rain or Shine while Globalport is facing top seed Alaska, Fajardo and Pringle can still improve their SPs for the BPC award.
Fajardo’s SPs did not move since he did not play in the quarterfinal round, but the gap between him and No. 2 Greg Slaughter of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel changed after the SP of the 7-foot center dropped from 45.3 to 43.2.
Globalport eliminated Ginebra in the second knockout stage of the quarterfinals with a controversial 84-83 victory last Dec. 27 at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena in Pasay City.
As for Pringle, he moved up from fourth (37.3) to third spot as he surpassed NLEX’s Sean Anthony, who is now at No. 4 with 36.6 SPs. Still at fifth slot is Anthony’s NLEX teammate Asi Taulava with 35.5 SPs.
The tabulation for SP is until the end of the semifinals, which will be computed together with the votes from the Commissioner’s Office, players and the media, to be awarded in Game 4 of the Finals.
The SPs accounts for 40 percent, while the media vote 30 percent, players 25 percent, and the Commissioner’s Office 5 percent.
Fajardo, the league’s reigning back-to-back MVP, is on track for a second straight BPC in the Philippine Cup and third in his career, while Pringle, the Rookie of the Year last season, is aiming for his first BPC.