Philippine Cup's best player known Sunday

Whether Jay Washington becomes only the fourth player to win the Best Player of the Conference (BPC) award at least twice in a row will be known Sunday when the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) honors the player who stood out the most in the season-opening Philippine Cup. Washington, the versatile San Miguel forward, is running only second in terms of stats behind Joe Devance of Alaska in the tight BPC race, but could clinch the coveted plum once the votes from the players, media and Commissioner's Office are tallied. The BPC award will be given before Game 4 of the Philippine Cup Finals between San Miguel and Talk 'N Text at the Araneta Coliseum. Washington was the BPC winner of the 2009-2010 Fiesta Conference. If the 6-foot-7 Filipino-American clinches the award, he becomes the latest to win the individual honor for two consecutive times. Only Vergel Meneses, Danny Ildefonso and Eric Menk have achieved the feat since the league began handing out the conference award in 1994. Meneses actually won three straight from the 1994 Governors' Cup up to the 1995 Commissioner's Cup. For his part, Ildefonso clinched five in a row from the 2000 Commissioner's Cup up to the 2001 Governors Cup, while Menk won back-to-back BPC titles in the 2004-05 Fiesta Conference (transition tournament) and in the Philippine Cup. Washington averages 33.30 statistical points behind the 34.24 of Devance through the semifinals of the all-Filipino meet. His San Miguel teammate, Arwind Santos, is currently third with 32.52 SPs, while two Talk 'N Text big men in Harvey Carey (30.33) and Ali Peek (29.52) complete the Top 5 list. Ironically, only Washington and Carey averaged double-digit outputs in both scoring and rebounding through 21 games. Washington norms 15.8 points and 10.0 rebounds, while Carey is a notch lower at 10.6 points and 11.1 rebounds. – JVP, KY, GMANews.TV