Pringle scoring champ; Fajardo king of boards

MANILA, Philippines — Stanley Pringle emerged as the new scoring champ even as June Mar Fajardo remained the barometer in rebounding while Chris Banchero beat everybody in the business of playmaking in PBA Season 43.

With his norm of 21.0 points an outing, Pringle ended the three-year reign of former NorthPort teammate Terrence Romeo as the No. 1 scorer in the local pro league.

The top rookie in the 2014-15 season, the 6-foor-1 Penn State product became a lot more relevant in his fourth PBA season on the departure of Romeo in midstream.

Pringle also distinguished himself as the player with the most minutes played (38.9 minutes per game) and most three-points made (3.0 per outing).

Pringle leads the MVP race at least in terms of stats in the season he also marked with his stints with the national team in the Asian Games, in the FIBA WC qualifiers and in the FIBA 3x3 World Cup.

The downside for Pringle was his average of 3.2 turnovers – also a league highest.

Fajardo ended as a close second to Pringle in scoring with 20.6 an outing.

In rebounding, the reigning four-time MVP winner was on top with 12.3 per game.

And with his whopping double-double norms on top of two Best Player of the Conference awards, the 6-foot-10 Cebuano gentle giant looms as the top choice for the top individual award to be handed out in the Leo Awards on Jan. 13 at the Philippine Arena.

Phoenix Petroleum wing man Matthew Wright was third in the scoring ladder with 17.6 points per game followed by Japeth Aguilar of Barangay Ginebra (16.4 ppg), and Sean Anthony of NorthPort (16.3 ppg) to round out the Magic Five.

Banchero was the top assist man with a 5.0 average, while the do-it-all NorthPort forward Sean Anthony led in steal with an average of 2.0 an outing.

Showcasing his emergence as one of the top big men in the PBA today, Poy Erram, formerly with Blackwater, was the ‘King of Swats’ with 1.9 blocks per ballgame.

Behind his 40 percent shooting, Meralco guard Baser Amer was the most accurate from three-point range, while Alaska’s JVee Casio was the most efficient from the free throw line with a high 92.4 percent shooting.

Among rookies, Kiefer Ravena still emerged the best in scoring with an average of 16.1 points per game despite being limited to just 24 games.

At second was San Miguel big man Christian Standhardinger (16.07 ppg), followed by Phoenix’s Jason Perkins (12.1 ppg), Blackwater’s Paul Zamar (10.2) and Alaska’s Jeron Teng (7.1).