Fajardo stands tall, secures 13th BPC award

San Miguel Beer center June Mar Fajardo reset his own record by winning his 13th Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Best Player of the Conference award.

The nine-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) received his second straight BPC during the simple awarding rites on Wednesday before the start of Game 4 of the Season 50 Philippine Cup finals at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Dominating the tournament with his towering presence, Fajardo was the runaway winner after collecting 1246 points for his eighth top individual recognition in an all-Filipino conference.

Fajardo amassed 515 statistical points, garnered 569 media votes with a perfect 40 first-place votes, and 162 player votes. He led the entire season-opening conference with an average of 44.3 statistical points.

The winner is determined through 45 percent of statistical points, 30 percent from media votes, and 25 percent players’ votes.

Fajardo is averaging 19.0 points, 20.0 rebounds, and 1.5 block shots in the best-of-seven championship series as the Beermen lead the TNT, 2-1.

At far second from the 6-foot-10 behemoth was Converge rookie Juan Gomez de Liano with 732 points he got from 432-276-24 stats-media-player votes.

Calvin Abueva finished third with 622 total points (479-87-56). The Titan Ultra energizer trailed Fajardo in the BPC race during the elimination round but fell behind after the Giant Risers missed the playoffs.

Converge center Justine Baltazar landed at fourth spot with 456 points (432-8-16) while rounding out the top five was Magnolia’s winger Zav Lucero with 420 points (392-8-20).