Alaska forward DeVance leads race for PBA top performer award

Afro-haired Joe Devance of the Alaska Aces continues to lead the race for the Rain or Shine-PBA Elims Top Performer Award nearing the homestretch of the PBA Philippine Cup.

But two other players — long-limbed Arwind Santos of San Miguel Beer and do-it-all Talk ‘N Text forward Harvey Carey — are chasing DeVance for the individual plum. Devance has accumulated a total of 35.57 average statistical points in 14 games of the classification round, while Santos has piled up 34.79 average SPs and Carey has garnered 34.57. The top choice will join Tropang Texters forward Ranidel de Ocampo as the first two recipients of the award handed out by the PBA Press Corps to the best performing player in the elimination and quarterfinal rounds of the All-Filipino Conference. The title is equivalent to the regular season MVP award. In the classification phase, Devance averaged 19.2 points per game, 8.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 0.6 steal and 1.3 blocks, leading to 428 statistical points. Santos normed 16.6 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 0.8 apg, 1.0 spg and 1.2 bpg for 377 SPs, while Carey had 12.4 ppg, 12.9 rpg, 2.4 apg, 0.8 apg, and 0.3 bpg for 374 SPs. TNT and SMB advanced to the best-of-seven semifinal series as they beat Rain or Shine and Air21, respectively. Alaska leads its best-of-3 quarterfinal playoffs against Barangay Ginebra, 1-0. Rounding out the Top 10 are SMB’s Jay Washington (33.77 average SPs), TNT’s Kelly Williams 30.42, TNT’s Jimmy Alapag (30.21), Air21’s Rabeh Al-Hussaini (29.64), Barangay Ginebra’s Willie Miller (29.50), SMB’s Dondon Hontiveros (29.29), and TNT’s Ali Peek (29.21). - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV