Manuel leads BPC derby

Milk forward Vic Manuel, improving by leaps and bounds curiously after a long battle with an injury, emerged the leading Best Player of the Conference contender after the elimination round of the 2018 PBA Commissioner's Cup.

Manuel, showing MVP form at 31 years old, was the top local performer in the one-roundrobin elims, coming through with a league-best 24.18 points a game that went with other averages of 6.27 rebounds, 1.0 assist, 0.82 steal and 0.64 block an outing.

And with the 80-point bonus gained on Alaska's 8-3 win-loss showing, Manuel logged a league-leading 37.2 statistical points a game, topping everybody including reigning four-time PBA MVP June Mar Fajardo who came at second with 36.8 SPs per game.

Sean Anthony and Stanley Pringle, GlobalPort's new one-two punch, were third and fourth with their averages of 35.4 and 35.0 SPs while Meralco's Chris Newsome rounded up the Magic Five with 33.5 SPs.

The next five were Rain or Shine's Raymond Almazan (31.3), Phoenix's Matthew Wright (30.7), Ginebra's Japeth Aguilar (30.5), San Miguel's Alex Cabagnot (30.5) and Troy Rosario (29.9).

Former BPC winners Jayson Castro (29.6), Arwind Santos (29.4) barely missed the Top 10 in the elims where ROS and Alaska finished the best teams followed by TNT KaTropa, Meralco, Ginebra, San Miguel, Magnolia and GlobalPort to round up the playoff qualifiers.

Manuel has easily been the most consistent player, scoring at least 20 points in each of their 11 games in the elims. For the record, he had never averaged more than 13.7 points since joining the league as GlobalPort's ninth pick from the 2012 Rookie Draft.

Fajardo, however, breathes down Manuel's neck with his norms of 19.64 points, 11.36 rebounds and 1.5 assists.

Meanwhile, Phoenix's Eugene Phelps leads all comers in the Best Import race, with 55.1 SPs a game. His closest pursuer is San Miguel's Renaldo Balkman (53.4). -