BEST PLAYER TROPHY TOSSUP BETWEEN GINEBRA BUDDIES

Caguioa and Helterbrand pace stats derby

The Ginebra backcourt tandem of Mark Caguioa and Jayjay Helterbrand have found themselves locked in a tight battle for the Best Player of the Conference (BPC) award having co-starred in an amazing 12-game romp that led to the Kings’ early entry into the 2008 Smart PBA Fiesta Conference Finals.

It's now a toss-up between the Ginebra buddies, unless Air21 also makes the Finals and Arwind Santos comes through with monster performances.

Already leading the BPC race after the elimination round, Caguioa and Helterbrand gained more ground on everybody as they even performed better in the playoffs, leading Ginebra to a two-game sweep of Sta. Lucia Realty in the quarterfinals and a four-game shutout of Red Bull in the semifinals.

During their 12-game run, Caguioa and Helterbrand took turns getting the Accel-Smart Player of the Week honors. Caguioa was the winner of the award in the week just past, highlighting his showing in the period with a 33-point explosion Sunday when Ginebra completed its sweep of Red Bull with a 101-97 overtime victory.

Caguioa, the 2006 Philippine Cup Best Player, is the league leading local scorer averaging 22.8 points a game while Helterbrand, the 2006 Philippine Cup Finals MVP, leads everybody in assists with 6.2 feeds per game on top of his 18.6 points a night.

Sta. Lucia's Kelly Williams and Alaska's Willie Miller were in the Magic Five after the elimination round. But they have kissed their BPC bid goodbye on the early exit of their teams in the season-ending tourney.

Santos was also in the Magic Five after the elims. It's uncertain, though, whether he would keep his spot with his performance dipping in the playoffs.

Gary David, now fully recovered from an ACL injury, has taken over as Air21's top gun, averaging 20.9 points in the playoffs against Santos' 11.2-point norm.

The question is whether David would make the Magic Five in time for the cut-off date in the stats race after placing only 18th in the elims.

Ranidel de Ocampo and Wynne Arboleda are the other Air21 players in the BPC race, standing at No. 13 and No. 14, respectively, before the playoffs.

Danny Seigle was Magnolia's strongest bet after the elims but his showing has been ruined by injuries in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Ginebra's Chris Alexander and Air21's Steven Thomas are the leading candidates for the Best Import honors.

Red Bull's Adam Parada showed the way early on until the arrival of other behemoths including Alexander, the league leading rebounder and shot-blocker.