FAJARDO, DURHAM PACE RACE FOR CONFERENCE TOP PLAYER HONORS
June Mar Fajardo is once again lording over the Best Player of the Conference race after the eliminations of the 2014 PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup following a stellar showing in his nine games for San Miguel Beer.
The Pinamungahan, Cebu giant led all locals in scoring and rebounding, as he logged a league-best 21.8 points and 16 rebounds, alongside his 1.4 assists, 1.4 blocks, and 0.6 steals to take a BPC-leading 43.8 statistical points (SPs) average.
Fajardo is looking for his second Best Player of the Conference award after bagging the plum in this season’s Philippine Cup.
The 6-foot-10 sophomore dominated the paint and helped the Beermen grab the fourth-seed in the playoffs with a 5-4 card.
Running second is Air21 big man counterpart Asi Taulava, who averaged 18.1 points, 12.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.3 blocks for a 37.9 SPs average.
Meralco’s Cliff Hodge is surprisingly running third with his 34.6 SPs average while Barangay Ginebra rookie Greg Slaughter made his return to the top five with his 34.0 SPs norm.
Ranidel de Ocampo of Talk ‘N Text rounded out the five best locals with 32.9 SPs average while completing the top 10 are Commissioner’s Cup BPC Jayson Castro of Talk ‘N Text (30.3 SPs), Alex Cabagnot of GlobalPort (29.4 SPs), Arwind Santos of San Miguel Beer (25.2 SPs), JVee Casio of Alaska (24.0 SPs), and Peter June Simon of San Mig Coffee (23.8 SPs).
In the Bobby Parks Best import race, it was the bull-strong Allen Durham who leads the race with his 61.0 SPs, as he normed 25.7 points, a league-best 25 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 2.0 blocks, and 0.3 steals in his three games so far for Barako Bull.
A close second is Talk ‘N Text reinforcement Paul Harris, who is the scoring leader overall in the conference with his 32.3 points while also averaging 14.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 0.8 steals for a 56.5 SPs average.
Rain or Shine’s Arizona Reid is at third with his 54.6 SPs, Reggie Williams of San Miguel Beer fourth with his 49.1 SPs norm while Meralco’s Mario West is at fifth spot with his 48.5 SPs norm.
Statistics comprise 40% of the criteria for the selection of the two individual awards while 30% will come from accredited media votes, 25% from players’ votes and five percent from the consensus vote of the PBA Commissioner’s Officie. (RL)
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