MANILA, Philippines - Petron Blaze dominant center Junmar Fajardo and Ginebra tall, athletic forward Japeth Aguilar are running neck-and-neck in the statistical points race for the Best Player of the Conference award entering the homestretch of the elimination round of the PLDT MyDSL PBA Philippine Cup.
Fajardo and Aguilar, both in the top 10 in scoring, rebounding and blocks, sport whopping statistical points (SPs) averages of 43.5 and 41.2, respectively.
Greg Slaughter, the top draft pick by Barangay Ginebra, is the runaway leader among the rookies and is at No. 5 overall with 36.5 SPs.
The 7-foot-1 behemoth, who starred for the University of the Visayas Green Lancers then the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the collegiate league, is almost 13 SPs ahead of closest rookie pursuer Terrence Romeo of Globalport (23.8).
San Mig Coffee’s Ian Sangalang (20.1) is at third followed by Rain or Shine’s Raymond Almazan (17.8), Globalport’s RR Garcia (17.5), another Globalport freshman Justin Chua (14.6), and ROS’s Jeric Teng (12.4) and Alex Nuyles (12.3).
In the overall race, reigning MVP winner Arwind Santos and Philippine Cup BPC titleholder Jason Castro are third and fourth with 37.3 and 37.0 SPs, respectively.
Globalport’s Jay Washington is at sixth but could have been at No. 1 if not for the Batang Pier’s struggling 4-6 win-loss slate.
With averages of 20.4 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.0 block, Washington accumulated the most number of bare stats points of 329 to Aguilar’s 322, Santos’ 298 and Fajardo’s 278.
For their teams’ winning records, Aguilar, Santos and Fajardo have bonus SPs of 90, 80 and 70, respectively, compared to Washington’s 40.
LA Tenorio is a third Ginebra player in the Top 10 with an average of 31.3 at No. 7, followed by Globalport’s Sol Mercado (30.3) then Petron wing players Marcio Lassiter (29.9) and Chris Lutz (28.8).
At 11th to 20th are Alaska’s Sonny Thoss (28.2), Air21’s Asi Taulava (27.6), San Mig’s Marc Barroca (27.5), Talk n Text’s Larry Fonacier (27.4), another TnT stalwart Ranidel de Ocampo (27.2), Rain or Shine’s Jervy Cruz (26.8), Air21’s Joseph Yeo (26.3), ROS’s Jeff Chan (26.2), Marc Pingris (26.0) and ROS’s Paul Lee (25.2).
Gilas Pilipinas players outside the Top 20 are Jimmy Alapag, Gary David and Gabe Norwood.
Fajardo, Gilas’ back-up center to Marcus Douthit, leads all comers with averages of 17.3 rebounds, 15.5 points, 1.6 assists, 3.0 blocks and 0.4 steals.
The 6-foot-10 Cebuano man-mountain, however, will have to return soon as he needs to meet a certain number of games to be qualified for the award.
Fajardo has sat out their last two games due to a knee injury.
Last year, he missed a big part of the Philippine Cup as he underwent a groin surgery.
Fajardo lost the 2013 Rookie of the Year award to Calvin Abueva but has since overtaken the Alaska player in terms of production and overall impact in the game.
Fajardo and Aguilar have both become impact players that they’re now the leading contenders for the coveted Best Player of the Conference plum.
Barring injuries, the two are expected to keep their spots in the Gilas Pilipinas team that competes in the FIBA World Cup in Spain and the Asian Games in Incheon, Korea late this year.