JAPETH Aguilar’s absence has obviously brought the best out of Christian Standhardinger.
The Barangay Ginebra back-up big man emerged as the top contender for the PBA Governors Cup Best Player of the Conference following the statistics tally released by the league at the end of the eliminations.
The 33-year-old Stanhardinger beat out two San Miguel Beermen and two TNT Tropang Giga for the No. 1 spot in the BPC race behind the 42.8 statistical points he tallied in the nine games he played in the eliminations.
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The Fil-German stepped up after Aguilar went down with an MCL injury and posted all-around averages of 22.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 6.0 assists.
Standhardinger is on a roll this year after earlier bagging the Finals MVP Award of the Commissioner’s Cup which saw Barangay Ginebra thump guest team Bay Area Dragons in the deciding Game 7 of the title series.
The 2017 top overall pick once won the BPC award during the 2019 edition of the Governors’ Cup while still wearing the NorthPort jersey.
The San Miguel duo of CJ Perez and injured six-time MVP June Mar Fajardo trail Standhardinger at second and third spots, respectively.
Perez averaged 20.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.4 assists per game to tally 39.3sps, while Fajardo has 37.6sps behind 14.3 points, a league-best 12.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.4 blocks before going out with an MCL injury he suffered while playing in the East Asia Super League (EASL) Champions Week in Japan.
Also in strong contention are the TNT pair of Calvin Oftana and Roger Pogoy.
Oftana is at fourth place with 36.1sps despite playing just in his second conference with the telecommunication franchise, while Pogoy averaged 20.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.3 steals for a total of 35.8sps.
Another Barangay Ginebra player in Jamie Malonzo made it to the Top 10 with 33.5sps to land at sixth spot, followed by Terrafirma guard Juami Tiongson with 33.30sps while leading the tournament in scoring with a 25.6 points average per outing.
Completing the Top 10 are Maverick Ahanmisi of Converge who posted 33.27sps behind averages of 20.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.0 assists, Calvin Abueva of Magnolia (32.6sps), and TNT sophomore guard Mikee Williams (32.5sps)
Curiously, Scottie Thompson, the reigning MVP and BPC winner of the Commissioner’s Cup, occupies 11th spot in a tie with rookie big man Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser, both with 31.6sps.
Ganuelas-Rosser of NLEX also happens to be the top rebounder of the conference with a 2.1 average.
Jio Jalalon of Magnolia, who leads the tournament in assists (6.3) and steals (2.5) is at no. 16 with 29.4sps behind Kevin Alas of NLEX (30.6sps), teammate Paul Lee (30.5sps), and Meralco guard Aaron Black (29.9sps).
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