By REYNALD MAGALLON
NLEX star Robert Bolick continued to pace the league in the PBA Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference race but Terrafirma rookie Stephen Holt and San Miguel big man June Mar Fajardo remain in a hot pursuit in the latest rankings at the end of the eliminations.
Bolick, who also continues to lead the league in scoring with 27.4 points, retained his spot atop the ladder after first taking the lead in the initial rankings halfway through the eliminations.
The heart and soul of the Road Warriors also collected 5.6 rebounds and another league-best 7.0 assists per contest to finish with 44.5 statistical points (SPs).
Despite the stellar performance in the all-Filipino conference, Bolick, however is still not a lock for the recognition especially with Holt also making a strong case for the individual honors.
A huge part of Terrafirma’s first-ever trip to the PH Cup playoffs, the top rookie pick of the recent draft continued to fill up the stat sheet with averages of 21.0 points, 8.4 rebounds, 6.6 assists and 2.5 steals and placed behind Bolick in the race with 41.5 SPs.
He improved one place higher from his previous ranking of third midway through the eliminations.
Not too far behind is seven-time Most Valuable Player in Fajardo who amassed a total of 41.0 SPs after recording 16,0 points, league-best 14.1 rebounds , 2.8 assists and 1.1 blocks.
Barangay Ginebra’s Christian Standhardinger and SMB’s CJ Perez completed the Top 5 with 38.9 and 38.7 SPs respectively.
The Kings big man was suddenly part of the conversations after hiking his averages to 19.9 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per contest to jump from the 10th spot in the previous list.
Perez also improved from sixth to fifth after a steady showing of 21.3 points, 5.5 rebounds,4.1 assists and 1.3 steals.
How deep the teams of the players inside the Top 5 could get into the playoffs will also have a huge impact on the BPC race, making it all the more interesting from hereon.
Fajardo and Perez’s SMB holds a twice-to-beat advantage against Holt’s Terrafirma while Bolick and NLEX face off against a defensive oriented Meralco in a best-of-three series. Standhardinger could also be on his way to the semis, barring any complications in Ginebra’s twice-to-beat series against Magnolia.
Getting knocked out of the ladder was NorthPort’s Arvin Tolentino and Rain or Shine’s Santi Santillan with the former falling from second to sixth and the latter from fifth to eight. The Batang Pier star has 36.4 SPs while the Elasto Painters sweet-shooting big man has 34.8 SPs.
They are sandwiching idle Calvin Oftana of TNT at the seventh spot with 35.5 SPs while Beau Belga of ROS and Ian Sangalang of Magnolia completed the Top 10 with 33.7 and 32.6 SPs respectively.
