Display of dominance

Now it’s a dozen.

San Miguel Beer center June Mar Fajardo added another shiny hardware in his still-growing collection of personal accolades after bagging the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup Best Player of the Conference (BPC) award.

The 6-foot-10 Fajardo copped the highest individual award in the all-Filipino contest in dominating fashion after posting 1085 statistical points, highlighted by a 33-point, 11-rebound explosion in their 108-88 victory in Game 3 of their best-of-seven final series against TNT Tropang Giga last Friday.

No less than PBA commissioner Willie Marcial handed him the plaque to signify his claim to his 12th BPC — ninth in the Philippine Cup — together with PBA chairman Ricky Vargas of TNT and vice chairman Alfrancis Chua of Barangay Ginebra before Game 4 on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

It was a sweet redemption for Fajardo after losing to NorthPort’s Arvin Tolentino in the Commissioner’s Cup BPC race. Fajardo was leading the statistical race after the elimination round of the import-laden mid-season conference, but was overtaken by Tolentino when San Miguel came short of a playoff seat and the Batang Pier advanced to the semifinals.

This time, Fajardo posted 40.4 SPs after the eliminations, averaging 17.5 points, 13.1 rebounds, and 3.3 assists as he led San Miguel to the top seed, giving themselves a win-once quarterfinal incentive which they maximized versus Meralco.

Although Fajardo missed some games in their best-of-seven semis series against Ginebra due to a calf injury, it hardly mattered as he managed to put up solid stats to help the Beermen return to the Finals.

The Cebuano giant dominated the competition with a consistent monster performance this conference with a double-double average of 16.0 points and 13.95 rebounds along with 3.2 assists, 1.1 blocks and 0.6 steals per game until the end of the semifinals.

The eight-time Most Valuable Player received 489 points from his stats, 505 media votes — all 37 first place votes — and 91 player votes.

Behind the 35-year old Fajardo was his teammate CJ Perez with a total of 704 points followed by NLEX’s Robert Bolick (562 points), Magnolia’s Zav Lucero (459) and Phoenix’s Jason Perkins (441).