SMART Clark Giga City - Sweet-shooting wingman Matthew Wright, the lead gun in Phoenix Super LPG's second-place showing in the PBA Philippine Cup bubble play elims, could well be on his way to claiming a first PBA major individual plum.
Wright led all comers in the statistical points (SP) race through the elims with 39.5 per game culled from his outstanding all-around norms of 22.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.4 steals.
Terrafirma's CJ Perez, the league leading scorer all the way from last season, was second with 35.7, followed by another Phoenix player Jason Perkins (35.5), TNT Tropang Giga's Bobby Ray Parks (35.2) and NorthPort's Christian Standhardinger (34.6) to round out the Magic Five.
Two TNT players Roger Pogoy (34.3) and Jayson Castro (33.6) narrowly missed the Top Five, followed by Ginebra teammates Stanley Pringle (33.3) and Scottie Thompson (33.2) then San Miguel's Moala Tautuaa (33.0) to complete the Top 10.
Making the third five were NLEX' Kiefer Ravena (32.6), SMB's Arwind Santos (32.4), Magnolia's Paul Lee (31.7), Meralco's Chris Newsome (31.1) and Alaska's Vic Manuel (29.9).
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Wright had a good distance over his closest pursuer after the elims. And he has just solidified his standing in the SP race with a 32-point explosion to lead the Fuel Masters to an 89-88 thriller of a win over the Magnolia Hotshots in their quarterfinal matchup Saturday.
Then second-running Perez has his big minus with his Terrafirma team failing to make the playoffs.
So, practically leading the pack now are teammates Wright and Perkins.
In the rookie race, top draft pick Roosevelt Adams of Terrafirma is in pole spot with 20.3, followed by Meralco's Aaron Black (18.7), Magnolia's Aris Dionisio (18.7), Alaska's Barkley Ebona and Ginebra's Arvin Tolentino (14.6). (SB)
