BARANGAY Ginebra’s Christian Standhardinger and TNT’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson maintained their hold of pole position in the race for Best Player of the Conference (BPC) and Best Import awards, respectively.
Mr. Standhardinger, the frontrunner after the elims, held sway in the latest tally and even widened his lead against closest pursuer CJ Perez of San Miguel Beer on account of his roaring performance in the playoffs.
From 42.8 statistical points, the Fil-German bruiser hiked his output to 44.2 SPs to go almost six-up on Perez, who carded 38.3 after an initial 39.3.
Mr. Standhardinger owns sparkling averages of 23.5 points, 10. 4 rebounds and 5.8 assists as he bids for a followup to his BPC feat back in the 2019 edition while still with NorthPort.
Two other Gin Kings — Jamie Malonzo and Thompson — and TNT gunner RR Pogoy landed in the Top 5 in the stats race for the top individual plum of the season-ending meet.
Mr. Malonzo jumped three spots to No. 3 with 34.4 SPs while Mr. Pogoy moved one up to fourth with a similar tally. Mr. Thompson, the BPC of the last Commissioner’s Cup, climbed to No. 5 from seventh with 34.3.
Among the imports, Mr. Hollis-Jefferson stayed ahead of the pack with Ginebra’s Justin Brownlee giving chase.
Mr. Hollis-Jefferson carded 57.1 SPs through the semis built around 30.4-point, 12.4-rebound and 6.54-assist averages to make a case for the Bobby Parks Sr. Trophy versus Mr. Brownlee, who leapt four places to No. 2 with 52.5.
Meralco’s KJ McDaniels (49.2) and San Miguel’s Cameron Clark (48.7) rounded out the candidates for Best Import. — Olmin Leyba