June Mar Fajardo cinch for MVP award

Last Games May Seal First Ever 5th Title; Standhardinger, Romeo Lead BPC race

MANILA, Philippines — San Miguel Beer ace behemoth June Mar Fajardo is on his way to sealing a record fifth MVP award while teammate Christian Standhardinger is a strong bet for the Best Player of the Conference (BPC) plum in the closing run of his rookie season.

As the BPC winner in the Philippine Cup and in the Commissioner’s Cup, Fajardo needs to just complete the required number of games in the season-ending tourney to put the lock on the MVP plum.

In playing his first game in the Governors Cup last Saturday, Fajardo may have hit the mark – 70 percent of their games in the season. Once he does, the 6-foot-10 Cebuano gentle giant will officially be an MVP contender, and he could well be the hands-down choice in the balloting.

He’s on track to becoming the league’s first ever five-time MVP winner, breaking a tie with Ramon Fernandez and Alvin Patrimonio on their similar hauls of four each.

Remaining up for grabs is the Governors Cup Best Player of the Conference award.

Standhardinger and TNT KaTropa’s Terrence Romeo could be the stats leaders but their teams are still on precarious situations at the moment.

The Beermen need to win two in a row in the quarterfinals to make the Final Four. The Texters, meanwhile, are still fighting to make the post-elims play.

Standhardinger is No. 1 on individual stats with his whopping averages of 25.0 points, 13.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.0 steal while Romeo has his own solid norms of 21.4 points, 5.2 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.0 steal.

Also with impressive numbers but failing to advance to the playoffs are NorthPort’s Stanley Pringle (20.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 1.5 steals), Columbian Dyip’s Jerramy King (20.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.09 assists) and another Batang Pier Sean Anthony (17.38 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.2 steals).

Meanwhile, Japeth Aguilar of Ginebra, Paul Lee of Magnolia and Vic Manuel of Alaska are among leading individual performers whose teams are assured of Top Four spots in the elims and the twice-to-beat bonus in the quarterfinals.

Aguilar averages 19.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.14 blocks, Lee norms 17.3 markers, 4.2 boards, 3.2 dish-offs and 1.7 steals while Manuel is putting in 15.9 buckets, 5.09 caroms and 1.45 dole-outs an outing.

Standhardinger, however, would easily set the pace in the stats race should the Beermen find their way to the semifinal round.

The Fil-German center/forward leads the scoring column and is the lone local player in the tourney that averages double-double numbers.

Other top performers are Marcio Lassiter (15.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg and 3.3 apg), Chris Banchero (15.8 ppg, 4.36 rpg, 8.7 apg), Jayson Castro (14.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 4.4 apg), Calvin Abueva (14.4 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 3.3 apg) and Matthew Wright (13.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 5.5 apg).