Rookie CJ Perez of the Columbian Dyip is a surprise contender for the Best Player of the Conference award of the ongoing Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup.
He joins San Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo, NorthPort Batang Pier’s Christian Standhardinger, NLEX Road Warriors’ Kiefer Ravena and TNT KaTropa’s Jayson Castro in the chase for BPC.
Not a single player from finalists Barangay Ginebra and Meralco Bolts made the Top Five in the statistical race.
Meralco’s Allen Durham and Ginebra’s Justin Brownlee are slugging it out for the Best Import award. Durham is a two-time Governors’ Cup Best Import winner while Brownlee is a one-time Commissioner’s Cup top reinforcement.
TNT’s KJ McDaniels and NorthPort’s Michael Qualls have outside chances of winning the award.
Durham and Brownlee remain the frontrunners after leading their respective teams to a third finals duel in the season-ending tourney.
Fajardo (with an average of 38.8 stats points) had a narrow lead in the stats race over Perez (37.2). It must be noted that Columbian did not even qualify to the playoffs.
Additionally, Perez is the best scorer (with an average of 23.2 points) in this conference. He also leads in steals (2.5).
Standhardinger (35.1 SPs) and Castro (31.6 SPs) towed their teams to the semifinals. Ravena (34.5 SP) earned props for his good showing after a long FIBA suspension.
Ginebra stalwarts Stanley Pringle (30.8), Japeth Aguilar (29.9) and LA Tenorio (28.0) narrowly missed the Magic Five. Also missing the cut were TNT’s RR Pogoy (30.4) and Meralco’s Chris Newsome (29.8).
Tied with Tenorio at 10th spot was Magnolia’s Ian Sangalang (28.0) then came another rookie in Bobby Ray Parks (27.5), followed by Raymond Almazan (27.4), Jeth Troy Rosario (27.0) and Matthew Wright (26.8) to round out the Top 15.
Fajardo collected averages of 19.3 points, 14.0 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.2 blocks to contend for a second BPC award in the season following his BPC victory in the Philippine Cup.