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TNT Tropang Giga rookie Mikey Williams has been making waves in his debut Philippine Basketball Association tournament and is in the running for the best player of the conference (BPC) award.
In the official list released by the league at the weekend, Mr. Williams, 29, the fourth overall pick in this year’s rookie draft, ranked second in the BPC race at the end of the elimination round, behind Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok do-it-all forward Calvin Abueva.
Mr. Abueva churned out an average of 35.36 statistical points, with Mr. Williams closely behind with 35.30 average SPs. Third running is Northport Batang Pier’s Robert Bolick with 35.27 SPs.
The TnT rookie is his team’s leading scorer, producing 18.4 points per contest, second league-wise, after the 19-point average of San Miguel Beermen’s Terrence Romeo.
Mr. Williams is also producing 4.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.2 steals in 10 games to date in the Philippine Cup for TnT, which ended the elimination round with a 10-1 record.
The steady play of Mr. Williams has afforded TnT the flexibility to manage the minutes of veteran Jayson Castro, which is proving to be beneficial for the latter as he does need to do much heavy lifting for his team game in and game out.
Mr. Williams, too, has complemented the play of the other young guns of the team like Roger Pogoy and Troy Rosario.
Completing the top 10 BPC contenders are Jamie Malonzo (31.5) of Northport at fourth, followed by Magnolia’s Ian Sangalang (31.3), San Miguel Beer’s CJ Perez (30.7), Rain or Shine’s Javee Mocon (31.1), San Miguel’s Arwind Santos (29.6), Phoenix Super LPG’s Jayson Perkins (29.4), and Ginebra’s Scottie Thompson (29.4).
Incidentally, Mr. Williams topped the rookie race after elimination play, ahead of Mr. Malonzo, Meralco’s Alvin Pasaol (20.6), NLEX’s Calvin Oftana (19.1), and Rain or Shine’s Leonard Santillan (15.6). — Michael Angelo S. Murillo