CLOSE RACE FOR FINALS MVP TROPHY

Miller, Cardona lead 7-player pack in contention

Tuesday, 10 February 2009

No less than four Alaska players and three Talk n Text stalwarts are locked in a close fight for the Mighty Bond Finals MVP award going into the deciding Game Seven of the 2008-09 KFC PBA Philippine Cup finale at the Araneta Coliseum Wednesday. It's a wide-open race among Alaska Aces Joe Devance, Sonny Thoss, LA Tenorio and Willie Miller and Talk n Text Tropang Texters Macmac Cardona, Jimmy Alapag and Harvey Carey. The award will be handed out by the PBA Press Corps, in coordination with the league, after the yours-or-mine Game Seven. The tight race for the Mighty Bond Finals MVP award looms, coming on the heels of the hotly contested Best Player of the Conference honors that went to Miller. Miller's numbers may have gone down in the title series but he's in the race for the Finals MVP plum being Alaska's biggest savior in Games Two and Five. The two-time season MVP awardee is averaging 14.6 points, 6.3 assists and 4.2 rebounds through the first six games of the series. Joe Devance leads Alaska in scoring, Thoss in rebounding and Tenorio in assists. Through Games One to Six, Devance averaged 15.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists, Thoss normed 14.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.3 assists while Tenorio logged averages of 11 points, 4.8 rebounds and seven assists. Cardona, Alapag and Carey were tops for the Texters. Carey, a great energy source for TnT, was the only player averaging in double-double in the series with norms of 12.2 points and 11.2 rebounds a game. Cardona is sharing 19.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals per outing while Alapag contributes 17.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.2 steals a game. Sta. Lucia's Dennis Espino bagged the Finals MVP in the last all-Filipino tourney. In the last Fiesta Conference, the recipients of the award were Eric Menk and Ronald Tubid. The award is traditionally given to the best performer of the champion team.