As expected, Christian Standhardinger bagged home the 2023 Davco PBA Governors’ Cup Best Player of the Conference (BPC) award, Sunday night.
It was a coronation waiting to happen for the Ginebra workhorse, who led the statistical points race right from the get-go — he garnered 42.8 SPs by the end of the eliminations, and then hiked it up to 44.2 following the semifinals.
He’s now won the second BPC award of his career, collecting his first in 2019 in the very same conference when he was still with NorthPort.
Standhardinger won the award via landslide, earning 1,110 points from stats and votes from the media and players. TNT’s Roger Pogoy was a distant second with 672, followed by CJ Perez of San Miguel with 497 points.
Reigning MVP Scottie Thompson had 497 points while another Gin King in Jamie Malonzo had 456 to place fourth and fifth, respectively.
The 33-year-old is next-man-up personified this conference, upping the ante the moment Japeth Aguilar suffered an MCL injury last February.
He put up 22.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 6.0 assists in nine games in the eliminations to help Ginebra clinch the no. 3 seed and book a win-once quarterfinal incentive, which they used against NLEX to reach the semis.
They set up a best-of-5 affair against the Beemen in what was widely perceived as a dogfight, but the crowd darlings showed otherwise as they dealt their fellow powerhouse team a rare sweep to return to the Finals.
And the former SMB stalwart himself was among those who caused problems to the long-time all-Filipino kings, averaging 26.3 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 6.3 assists in the series that saw him drop 30-plus markers in the first two games.
Thanks to him, Ginebra is back in the Governors’ Cup Finals for the fifth time in seven seasons, which is also its ninth Finals trip overall since 2016.
(C) PBA Images
Meanwhile, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson earned Coins.ph Best Import of the Conference honors for his first major individual award as a pro.
He received 1,147 points to beat previous winner Justin Brownlee (966), Cam Clark of SMB (610), and Meralco’s KJ McDaniels (573).
The former NBA cager has been nothing short of impressive ever since he signed up with the Tropang Giga to take the place of Jalen Hudson, so much that he helped the club capture the no. 1 seed with a 10-1 record.
Similar to Standhardinger, Hollis-Jefferson led the Best Import stats race from the start, earning 59.0 SPs built around norms of 31.0 points, 12.0 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 2.4 assists in five games in the eliminations.
The 28-year-old forward would stay on top with 57.1 SPs by the end of the semis, where he averaged 32.7 points, 13.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.0 block to lead TNT in finishing the Bolts in four to reach the finale.
(C) PBA Images
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The 2023 PBA Governors Cup Finals is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
