Williams, Santos chief MVP rivals

MANILA, Philippines - Kelly Williams and Arwind Santos, the chief rivals for the 2007 Rookie of the Year award and the 2008 MVP honors, are at it again in 2009-2010 KFC PBA Philippine Cup, being the frontrunners in the stats race through the Christmas break of the All-Filipino tourney.

Williams and Santos are running neck-and-neck in the fight for the Best Player of the Conference plum with the Sta. Lucia Fil-Am star averaging 39.5 statistical points (SPs) per game and the San Miguel stalwart norming 39.0 an outing.

Talk n Text’s Mark Cardona, the scoring leader with an average of 21.8 points, is running third with 34 SPs, followed by Alaska main men Willie Miller (33.5), LA Tenorio (31.4) and Joe De Vance (31.2).

Ronald Tubid, Ginebra’s energy force in the absence of Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand, is at seventh with 30.3 SPs, followed by another Alaska player Reynel Hugnatan (28.85), Sta. Lucia’s Ryan Reyes (28.77) and Talk n Text’s Harvey Carey (28.5).

Just outside the top 10 are Talk n Text’s Jimmy Alapag (27.64), San Miguel’s Dondon Hontiveros (27.60) and Purefoods’ Kerby Raymundo (27.0).

The top five players in the stats race after the semifinal round dispute the coveted Best Player of the Conference honors in a balloting.

Santos, Miller, Tenorio and De Vance trail Williams at the moment but they’re likely to get big boost on the possible outright semifinal passage of their teams.

San Miguel, at 12-3, and Alaska, at 11-2, lead the fight for the two outright semis berths with Sta. Lucia virtually out of it at 7-6.

Talk n Text is rallying at 10-5 with Purefoods and Ginebra a game behind at 9-6.

Williams and Santos are the stats race leaders as they figure prominently in practically all major stats departments.

Former teammates with Magnolia in the PBL, Williams and Santos are the only players in the top 10 in both scoring and rebounding. – Nelson Beltran