CARDONA SEASON’S BEST IN SCORING

Mac-Mac Cardona became only the second player in Talk 'N Text franchise history and the first in four years to lead the league in scoring after he averaged 20.0 points in 46 games this past 2008-09 season where the Tropang Texters won the Philippine Cup.
Cardona, who made it to the Mythical First Team at season’s end for the first time in his career, was the only local who normed at least 20.0 ppg and was more than two points better than the average of last year’s scoring champion James Yap of Purefoods who averaged 17.8 in 41 games, down from his 21.3 last season.
Burger King’s Gary David ranked third with his 17.2 ppg in 45 games while teammate Arwind Santos was at No. 4 with his 17.2 ppg in 44 games. Alaska’s Willie Miller who ranked second in scoring to James Yap last season, was ranked fifth in scoring with his 16.7 ppg, down from his 20.7 a year ago.
Cardona, who was also named Finals MVP when Talk 'N Text won its second all-Filipino title in franchise history last February, thus followed in the footsteps of Asi Taulava who led the league in scoring for four consecutive seasons from 2001 to 2004-05 while he was still with TNT.
Rounding out the season’s Top 10 locals in scoring were league Most Valuable Player Jayjay Helterbrand of Barangay Ginebra (16.20 ppg), Purefoods’ Kerby Raymundo (16.17 ppg), Taulava (15.0), Talk 'N Text’s Jimmy Alapag (14.9) and Purefoods’ PJ Simon (14.1).
However, Taulava, who is now with Coca-Cola, led the locals in rebounding for the second straight season, third time in the last four seasons and fourth in the last six, averaging 11.3 boards in 36 games for the Tigers this past campaign. A member of this past season’s Mythical First Team and All-Defensive Team, Taulava was the only local to average in double figures in rebounding.
Talk 'N Text’s Harvey Carey and Sta. Lucia’s Kelly Williams ranked second and third, respectively, among the locals in rebounding this past season with their 9.8 and 8.9 rpg averages while another player from Talk 'N Text, Ranidel de Ocampo, was ranked No. 4 with his 6.04. Rain or Shine’s JayR Reyes rounded out the Top 5 local rebounders with his 8.0 rpg norm in 44 games.
Meanwhile, Alex Cabagnot of Coca-Cola became the first player in the league in 17 years to lead the locals in assists and steals in the same season, with his 5.3 apg and 1.41 spg averages in 32 games.
Ronnie Magsanoc, now an assistant coach at Purefoods, was the last local player to do the trick in 1992 when he normed league-best numbers of 8.1 assists and 1.7 steals a game as chief quarterback of Shell.
Alapag ranked second in assists with his 5.0 while Alaska teammates Miller and L.A. Tenorio ranked third and fourth with their 4.8 and 4.66 apg, respectively. Helterbrand, last season’s No. 1 in assists, fell to No. 5 with his 4.56 apg
A surprise No. 1 in shotblocks among the locals was Burger King sophomore JR Quinahan who swatted away an average of 1.38 shots a game, slightly ahead of the 1.33 bpg of Talk 'N Text’s Ali Peek.
Williams, last season’s MVP, logged the most playing time, averaging 40.2 mins. a game, the only local to play at least 40 per night. Cabagnot ranked second in game exposure with his 37.0 minutes a game. (FM)