June Mar Fajardo kept his lofty position in the stats race through the 2019 PBA Philippine Cup semi-finals, making him a strong bet to nail a record sixth straight Best Player of the Conference honors in the all-Filipino tourney.
Contending with the San Miguel Beer behemoth in the balloting are NorthPort’s Big Three of Sean Anthony, Stanley Pringle and Moala Tautuaa and TNT KaTropa gunner RR Pogoy.
These players emerged the top five in the stats’ race, with Fajardo leading the field with an average of 41.4 stats points per game, followed by Anthony (37.1), Pringle (34.8), Pogoy (33.6) and Tautuaa (33.1).
Phoenix Pulse energy guy Calvin Abueva was in the magic five through the elims, but dropped down to No. 6 after the semis with the huge 40 statistical points deducted from his total because of technical and flagrant infractions. He ended up with an average of 31.6 SPs.
Another Beerman Alex Cabagnot came in seventh (31.6) while Ian Sangalang emerged as Magnolia Pambansang Manok’s top player in the stats race at No. 8 overall with an average of 30.5 SPs.
Matthew Wright of Phoenix Pulse (30.4) and Japeth Aguilar of Barangay Ginebra (30.1) rounded out the Top 10.
Fajardo is the outstanding favorite to win the coveted award as he’s the lone player in the top five that will play in the best-of-seven finale.
Going to the finals, the 6-foot-10 gentle giant averaged 20.6 points, 13.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.7 rebounds.
With those numbers, Fajardo amassed a runaway total of 656 SPs jacked up by his 130 won game bonus SPs for a grand total of 786.
In the Rookie of the Year derby, Jaymar Perez (28.7), Robert Bolick (22.8) and Javee Mocon (22.2) remained the top three after the all-Filipino semis.