And Boyet Fernandez, whose squad swept Freego Jeans in the best-of-three Finals series, just wouldn’t let this one pass without backing up whom he thought was the conference’s best player.
“My heart goes to RR (Garcia), we expected RR to be the MVP, we’ve been robbed twice already,” said Fernandez, also pointing out that one of his players should have took home the plum last season.
Garcia got beat out by Cebuana Lhuillier’s Vic Manuel while in the previous conference, Allein Maliksi of Cebuana Lhuillier bested Calvin Abueva for the individual honor.
“No question about Vic Manuel, he deserves to be MVP as well but giving the MVP award to a player not from the championship team is questionable. I respect the decision but I feel bad because my players deserve to be MVP, twice already,” Fernandez told reporters after the Road Warriors hacked out a hard-earned 89-75 victory in Game 2 over the Jeans Makers to seize the Aspirants Cup crown.
Garcia, the 2010 UAAP MVP, struggled in the clincher scoring only six points on just two-of-14 shooting from the field and Fernandez saw it as a sign of frustration in his point guard’s part for not getting the recognition.
“RR missed his shots, you saw (he) was really down in the first and second quarter but the true professional that he is, he played well in the third, he stepped up and it just showed who is the true MVP this conference and that’s RR,” said Fernandez.
With Freego on top at the half, Garcia timely chalked up his first points in the game with a triple that kickstarted NLEX’ third quarter run.
And from that point on, the Road Warriors took control and pulled away as the game grew weary.
Chris Ellis came though with a team-high 20 points while fellow Fil-American Cliff Hodge had 15 points, 17 rebounds and six blocks to lead fancied NLEX, which is just a cut above everyone else.
The Far Easter University star wasn’t in his usual form that night but for the majority of the conference Garcia made his case as he helped the Road Warriors top the elimination round.
Manuel, meanwhile, almost single-handedly carried Cebuana Lhuillier throughout the tournament averaging 15.9 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. The Gems however, got stunned by the Jeans Makers in the semifinals while Garcia, though getting plenty of help from his star-studded teammates, took the title.