MANILA—Arwind Santos made the most out of the opportunity when adversity hit Petron Blaze.
Friday night, he reaped the reward for his efforts.
For keeping his injury-hit squad in the title hunt, the hardworking forward bagged his first major individual award last night when he was named Best Player of the Conference for the Governor’s Cup.
The 6-foot-4 standout out of Far Eastern U, the No. 2 pick in the 2006 draft, collected 1306 points to claim the award convincingly over a pair of spitfire guards in Barangay Ginebra’s Mark Caguioa (900) and Talk ‘N Text’s Jayson Castro (505).
Santos collected 600 points from media votes, 296 from statistics, 108 from players’ votes and 150 each from official TV coveror Solar and the PBA.
Santos and the Boosters were playing Castro and the Tropang Texters in Game 3 of the Best-of-Seven finals as of presstime. The series is tied at 1 game apiece.
Caguioa, who also finished second to Talk ’N Text’s Jimmy Alapag in the BPC race in the Commissioner’s Cup, was second again, was Solar’s top choice, giving him 300 points, but he ended up fourth in statistics (239), second by the media (263), second by PBA (75) and fourth by the players (23).
Stepping up in the absence of Jay Washington, the BPC in the All-Filipino Conference who was sidelined by a foot injury at the start of the tournament, Santos came through double-double averages in points (16.7) and rebounds (14.5) through 13 games. He also averaged 1.1 assists, 1.1 steals, 1.6 blocks.
It marked the first time in 17 years that two players from the same team won a BPC award in the same season. Jerry Codiñera won the 1994 All-Filipino BPC, a feat duplicated by teammate Alvin Patrimonio in the Commissioner’s Cup later that same season.
Rain or Shine’s Arizona Reid captured the Best Import plum, edging Alaska reinforcement Jason Forte.
Reid, who played college ball at Highpoint University in North Carolina, chalked up solid numbers of 28.7 points, 15.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists to lead the Elasto Painters to a fifth-place finish.