THE departure of James Yap in the offseason has given Allen Maliksi an opportunity to blossom into a top scoring option under new Star coach Chito Victolero.
Getting the green light to shoot, the 6-foot-3 Maliksi didn’t disappoint, delivering for a Star quintet that is starting to learn to win big games in the post-James Yap era.
Maliksi stood at the forefront of Star’s two-game win streak this past week, averaging 25.5 points and 5.0 rebounds to help his team secure a quarterfinal spot in the Philippine Cup.
Maliksi earned him his first Accel-PBA Press Corps Player of the Week award for the period of Jan. 22-28, beating former Star teammate and now Mahindra’s go-to-guy Alex Mallari, Alaska’s young forward Kevin Racal, three-time league MVP June Mar Fajardo, GlobalPort gunner Terrence Romeo and TNT’s rookie Roger Pogoy.
The former University of Santo Tomas standout started his hot streak in Star’s 111-95 rout of Blackwater last Wednesday where he finished with a personal season-high 26 points, built around five triples.
Three days later, the eighth overall pick of Barako Bull in the 2011 PBA Rookie Draft presided over Star’s merciless 120-73 annihilation of Meralco by scoring 17 of his 25 points in the first half.
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