By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra big man Christian Standhardinger is on track to bagging his second Best Player of the Conference award after leading the derby at the end of the elimination round.
The 6-foot-9 slotman who had to play a bigger role this conference following the injury of frontcourt partner Japeth Aguilar topped the list with 42.8 statistical points after averaging 22.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 6.0 assists through nine games.
Standhardinger made his case even stronger after posting 20 points and eight rebounds as the Kings advanced to the semifinals after a 127-93 victory over NLEX in the quarterfinals.
Ginebra is set to take on San Miguel in the semifinals and a series win against it would further boosts Standhardinger’s bid for the plum especially that two Beermen are trailing him in the lists
The San Miguel duo of CJ Perez and June Mar Fajardo came in second and third with 39.3 SPs and 37.6 SPs respectively. Perez has been playing superb all throughout the conference and stepped up his game a notch higher in the recent games following the MCL injury to Fajardo.
He averaged 20.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.5 steals while the SMB slotman remained the best local rebound with 12.8 boards per outing.
Also in the top 5 are TNT’s Calvin Oftana and RR Pogoy with the former finishing the elims at the fourth spot with 36.1 SPs while the latter landed at the fifth with 35.8.
Also in the Top 10 are Standhardinger’s teammate Jamie Malonzo (33.5) at the sixth, top local scorer and Terrafirma’s Juami Tiongson (33.3) at the seventh and Converge’s Maverick Ahanmisi (33.27) at the eighth.
Rounding up the list are Calvin Abueva (32.6) and Mikey Williams (32.5). Curiously just sitting outside the Top 10 is reigning MVP and last season’s Govs’ Cup BPC Scottie Thompson with 31.6 SPs, tied with NLEX’s Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser at the 11th place.
