IT’S going to be a three-way fight among Calvin Abueva, Mikey Williams, and Ian Sangalang for the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup Davco-Best Player of the Conference award.
The highest individual honor for the conference will be given out before Game 4 of the best-of-seven finals on Wednesday at the Don Honorio Ventura State University gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.
Abueva, the Magnolia Hotshots energizer, led the statistical points all the way to the cutoff period by the end of the semifinals with 34.2 sps.
Sangalang finished third with 33.0 followed by Williams, the super rookie of TnT Tropang Giga, at fourth with 32.0.
Bolick fades from race
Robert Bolick of NorthPort managed to land at second spot with 33.7, but the Batang Pier’s failure to advance deep in the playoffs hurt his chance of winning the award.
Statistics account for 40 percent of the award, while the rest counts 30 percent from media votes, 25 percent players’ votes, and five percent from the Commissioner’s Office.
Abueva is in the best position to win his second BPC plum and first since the 2016 Commissioner’s Cup, while Sangalang is vying for his first major individual award since being picked No. 2 overall by the Purefoods franchise in the 2013 draft.
The 6-foot-2 Williams, who turns 30 today, fell to No. 4 in the statistical points race after initially struggling in the playoffs especially in the series against San Miguel Beer. He was previously at No. 2 behind Abueva at the end of the eliminations.
But the Fil-Am guard has since raised the ante in TnT’s title series against Magnolia, recording a new finals record of 10 three pointers made in a 106-98 loss in Game 3 last Sunday.
Williams’ scoring explosion in the series makes him a frontrunner for the Honda-PBA Press Corps Finals MVP should the Tropang Giga win the championship.
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