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Jervy
Cruz is not only leading University of Santo Tomas (UST)
in its title-retention drive, he is also boosting his
stock as the top collegiate player in the country today.
The
hulking 20-year-old Growling Tigers’ slotman could be on
track to hoisting the most prestigious individual
award—the Most Valuable Player (MVP) trophy—in the
University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP)
Season 70 men’s basketball tournament.
Cruz
emerged as the leading MVP candidate after topping the
Statistical Points (SP) category, garnering an aggregate
of 75.43 SPs at the end of the first round of
eliminations.
The
six-foot-four former Youth stalwart is the league’s
leading rebounder with 16.7 rebounds per game. He is
also averaging a league third-best 16.3 points an outing
for a mammoth double-double that carried the Growling
Tigers to four victories against three defeats in the
first round.
SPs are
computed by adding a player’s points, rebounds, assists,
steals, blocks and won game bonus (15 per win), minus
technical fouls (five points) and ejections (10) divided
by the number of games played.
Running
second was Adamson’s King Falcon Patrick Cabahug with
72.71 SPs. The veteran sniper is the league’s top scorer
at 26.0 points per game, although his prowess could only
elevate the team to a 1-6 record for seventh spot in the
standings. He is also averaging 8.9 rebounds
(fourth-best).
National
University (NU)’s top dog Edwin Asoro is at far third
with 60.29 SPs, followed by De La Salle’s Rico
Maierhofer and JV Casio, who have identical 53.43 SPs.
Rounding
out the top 10 were Kelvin Gregorio of University of the
East (UE) with 52.00 SPs, NU’s Jonathan Fernandez
(50.71) UE’s Marcy Arellano (49.86), James Martinez
(49.14) and Mark Borboran (48.86).
University of the
Philippines’s
(UP) Mike Gamboa is at the forefront of the race for the
Rookie of the Year award as the former Ateneo Blue
Eaglet came up with 34.14 SPs after averaging 12.3
points, 2.6 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals.
Fernandez is the league’s second-top point producer with
an 18.4-point clip, followed by Cruz’s 16.3 and Casio’s
14.1. UP’s Woody Co is at No. 5 with 13.6, while Asoro
(13.3), Adamson’s Roel Hugnatan (12.9), Ateneo’s Chris
Tiu (12.6), Gamboa (12.3) and Gregorio (11.9) complete
the top 10.
Besides
Cruz, Asoro is the only other player to average a
double-double as the Bulldogs’ power-forward also normed
a league second-best 10.0 boards.
UST’s
Japs Cuan is the league’s best playmaker, dishing out
4.7 assists per game, while Asoro and fellow NU starter
Jonathan Jahnke are the league’s chief thieves with 1.7
steals. UP’s Soc Rivera is the top shot-blocker at 1.7
blocks per game.
Cuan
also earned the dubious distinction as the most
error-prone player with 3.4 turnovers per game.
Hugnatan
holds a single-game record for most points this season
at 32, while Cruz’s career-high 23 rebounds was the most
number of caroms hauled by a player in a game. The other
single-game records are Janhke’s nine assists, Casio’s
and Asoro’s five steals, NU’s Joseph Lingao-lingao’s
five blocks and Co’s six turnovers. |
