Despite early boot, Fajardo leads BPC stats race

File photo
By Ivan Saldajeno

QUEZON CITY--In an interesting revelation, the player who leads in the Best Player of the Conference in the PBA Governors' Cup as far as the stats are concerned is from a team that did not even make the semifinals.

San Miguel's Junemar Fajardo leads the pack in terms of stats among the locals for the season-ending conference despite his team missing out on a rare grand slam after a quarterfinal boot.

The 6-foot-10 beanpole from Cebu has an average of 38.5 statistical points per game through the semifinals, way ahead of TNT's Jayson Castro, who is second with 33.6.

In third is another Cebuano tall order in Ginebra's Greg Slaughter, who has 32.6 average SP's, while his fellow former Ateneo Blue Eagle, Meralco's Chris Newsome, is fourth with 30.9.

Another Beerman made the Top 5 in Arwind Santos, who garnered 30.6 average SP's.

The Barangay's LA Tenorio barely missed out on the Top 5 as he is sixth with 30.2 average SP's.

Meanwhile, GlobalPort's Stanley Pringle and Alaska's Calvin Abueva made the shortlist despite their teams not making the playoffs.

Pringle is seventh with 29.4 average SP's, while Abueva is eighth with 29.0.

Rounding the Top 10 are Bolt Baser Amer (ninth with 28.9 average SP's) and Beerman Alex Cabagnot (28.5).

However, the fact that SMB and TNT missed the finals could take a hit on Fajardo and Castro's BPC as the votes from the media, the Commissioner's office, and the players could even favor Slaughter and Newsome, whose respective teams will collide in the best-of-seven finals beginning Friday.

The media and the players will devote the rest of the week to vote who they think deserves to take the individual plum.

The BPC will be announced in Game 2 of the finals on Sunday night.

Follow him on Twitter: @IvanSaldajeno