SAN Miguel Beer forward Arwind Santos is already on his fifth season in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) but the former Far Eastern Universtiy King Tamaraw has yet to win a major individual trophy, including the Best Player of the Conference (BPC).
The ongoing 2010 PBA Philippine Cup, however, could be the tournament the Pampanga native is waiting for as the Beermen’s six-foot-forward led in the statistical points (SPs) average category after the quarterfinal round of the All-Filipino conference.
He is on target for his first BPC trophy but the race could be the closest ever, at least in the SPs category, as Santos is leading by only five points over seven serious contenders.
And judging from what happened last season when B-MEG Derby Ace’s James Yap, who was outside the top five of the SPs category but managed to sneak in and win the BPC of the same tournament, nothing is safe at this point.
Santos garnered an average of 34.7 SPs in 15 games as he averaged 16.6 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game for San Miguel, which ranked No. 2 after the elimination phase and will face Barangay Ginebra in the best-of-seven semifinal series starting on January 5.
A close second is Alaska’s Joe Devance with 34.5 SPs but his Aces were eliminated by the Kings in the quarterfinal round, dimming his chance also for his first BPC award.
Talk ’N Text, the top seed in the Philippine Cup, has three players in the top 10 while Santos’s teammates Anthony Washington and Dondon Hontiveros also have legitimate shots at the trophy.
Tropang Texters’ forward Harvey Carey (34.4), center Ali Peek (30.2), Jimmy Alapag (30) and Kelly Williams (29.5) were third, sixth, seventh and ninth, respectively, in that category, while Washington, who won the BPC award in the 2009-10 Fiesta Cup, was fourth with 34.1
Forward Rudy Hatfield was the only Ginebra player in the top 10 with 30.6 SPs for fifth spot. Hatfield was the 2003 Reinforced Conference BPC winner while playing for Coca-Cola.
Meralco’s Mark Cardona was actually at eighth spot with 29.7 SPs average but like Devance, his chances are now remote as the Bolts were swept by the Llamados in the best-of-three quarterfinal series.
Joel Orellana, Business Mirror
