FEU's Garcia, JRU's Njei cop collegiate weekly honors

Far Eastern University's "super" sophomore guard RR Garcia and Jose Rizal U's hard-working forward Nchotu Njei earned the Player of the Week honors given by sports writers covering in their respective collegiate leagues. Garcia, 20, was named as the UAAP Player of the Week while Njei duplicated his feat in the NCAA. The 5-foot-11 Garcia averaged 21.5 points and helped FEU to back-to-back wins that pushed the Tamaraws on top of the UAAP men’s standings. "He's super. He stepped up when we needed him to step up," said FEU coach Glenn Capacio. The former RP Youth Team mainstay scored 25 points in the Tamaraws' season-opening 72-69 win over two-time defending champion Ateneo then followed that up with an 18-point performance in a come-from-behind 76-72 victory over National U. "I just give my best to help the team win," said the Zamboanga-born Garcia, who even scored seven of FEU's last 12 points in the fourth quarter when they defeated NU. Njei, meanwhile, finally came out of the shadows of fellow Cameroonian Joe Etame when he provided the lift for JRU's third straight win. He scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds, issued seven assists, had two steals and blocked two shots in the Heavy Bombers' 78-62 dumping of Perpetual Help last Friday. Before the game, Njei was only averaging three points per outing. “Njei was playing really well on both ends of the court," said JRU rookie coach Vergel Meneses, the PBA's Most Valuable Player in 1995. JRU improved its record to 3-1 to stay within striking distance of co-leaders San Beda and defending champion San Sebastian (3-0). – JVP, GMANews.TV