MANILA – While Christian Standhardinger is way ahead in the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup Best Player of the Conference race, the chance for the San Miguel Beermen rookie taking home the individual award is now in peril.
The Beermen got eliminated by the Alaska Aces in their quarterfinals encounter on Wednesday evening 96-85.
Standhardinger was the local leader in scoring and rebounding and the only player to average double-double for a whopping 43.1 statistical points in 11 elimination round matches.
The 6-foot-8 Filipino-German center averaged 23.3 points and 13.6 rebounds a game, and 1.6 assists, 0.9 steal and 0.6 block in an outstanding stint in the season-ending conference.
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings’ Japeth Aguilar is the next contender for the award with 34.8 SPs for averaging 19.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.0 block, and 0.5 steal.
Rounding out the top five in the BPC race are Aces’ Chris Banchero (34.2), NorthPort Batang Pier’s Stanley Pringle (34.0) and Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters’ Calvin Abueva (31.9).
Meanwhile, Mike Harris of the Aces, Justin Brownlee of the Kings and Eugene Phelps of the Fuel Masters are in a tight battle for the Best Import of the Conference award, having 60.4, 59.1 and 58.0 SPs, respectively.
Aaron Fuller (57.4) is closely behind the three but he is essentially out of the race after the NLEX Road Warriors exited the tournament when they lost their quarterfinal game to the Kings./PN
