By JEREMIAH SEVILLA
SMART CLARK GIGA CITY – Phoenix’s main gunner Matthew Wright will certainly be a marked man once the PBA Philippine Cup resumes on Tuesday.
That’s because the sweet-shooting guard emerged the scoring leader midway through the bubble season, averaging 25.71 points in seven games for the Fuel Masters who have a 4-3 win-loss record.
Terrafirma guard CJ Perez is within striking distance with 25.2 points followed by the TNT duo of Roger Pogoy and Ray Parks Jr. with 22.83 and 21.4, respectively. NLEX guard Kiefer Ravena rounds out the top five with 19.86 markers.
Completing the top 10 in scoring so far are NorthPort’s Christian Standhardinger (18.8), San Miguel’s Mo Tautuaa (18.3), TNT’s Jayson Castro (18.2), Ginebra’s Stanley Pringle (18.17) and Magnolia’s Paul Lee (18.0).
The 6-foot-8 Standhardinger leads the league in crashing the boards, hauling down 11.4 rebounds a game while being one of the only three cagers who are averaging double-double figures this conference.
San Miguel veteran forward Arwind Santos, who is also putting up a double-double per game, comes in next to Standhardinger with 10.67 boards, ahead of Phoenix’s Jason Perkins (10), NorthPort’s Sean Anthony (9.75) and TNT’s Troy Rosario (9.3).
Castro and Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson share the lead in the assists department with identical norms of six per game. Behind them are Anthony (5.75), Wright (5.29) and Meralco’s Chris Newsome (5.0).
San Miguel guard Chris Ross is the “man of steal” so far with an average of 2.83 steals, besting Perez (2.8), Magnolia’s Mark Barroca (2.1), Rain or Shine’s Gabe Norwood (2.0) and Pogoy (2.0).
Phoenix’s frontcourt men Justin Chua and Dave Marcelo rule the blocks category with 1.57 and 1.43, respectively, followed by ROS’ Javee Mocon (1.2) and Terrafirma’s Joseph Gabayni (1.2).
