PBA: Stephen Holt holds big lead in Rookie of Year race

FILE–Terrafirma Dyip and Stephen Holt. –PBA IMAGES

Terrafirma’s Stephen Holt is in a position to capture the PBA Rookie of the Year award after leading the statistical points race after the league’s 48th season.

The league bared Tuesday that the top overall pick of last year’s draft compiled 34.1 Statistical Points to gain a wide lead over three fellow newcomers who also made an impact for their respective teams.

NorthPort’s Cade Flores is second with 23.3 Statistical Points, Rain or Shine’s Adrian Nocum is third with 21.8 while Phoenix’s Kenneth Tuffin is fourth with 21.5.

READ: Stephen Holt tells PBA crowd: You want parity? We hear you

Forty-five percent of the statistics will be used as criteria to determine the winner which will be announced in the opening of the PBA’s 49th season next month.

The rest are votes from the media (30%) and players (25%).

Holt is also running sixth in the race for the MVP award, putting him in contention to at least garner a slot in either the first or second Mythical Team.

READ: Stephen Holt determined to tow Terrafirma to places he’s familiar with

The 32-year-old guard produced 17.0 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.9 steals during the season, bouncing back from a so-so Commissioner’s Cup with a breakout showing in the Philippine Cup.

During the all-Filipino tourney, Holt teamed up with Juami Tiongson to send Terrafirma to the quarterfinals for just the second in franchise history and came one win shy of eliminating top seed San Miguel Beer by forcing a knockout match.