Seigle PBA week’s top pick for sparking Beermen streak

Rising up to the challenge takes one big heart and, based on his performances of late, Danny Seigle totes the biggest in the PBA Philippine Cup.

Seigle, the tournament’ s top scorer and leader in the Best Player of the Conference race, has been the primary target of every conceivable defense by the rest of the field.

To little or no avail, as the man nicknamed "Dynamite" continued to have his way and helped prop San Miguel Beer to two victories in the week that was, stretching their amazing streak to seven games and a league-leading 9-2 win-loss record.

It was not Seigle alone who gets the job done for SMB.

There are the likes of Dorian Pena, Dondon Hontiveros and Danny Ildefonso doing their share in moving the team closer to a top two finish in the classification phase and a coveted outright semifinal slot.

"Ganyan naman ang team namin ngayon, kung sino ang mainit siyang hinahanap," said Beermen coach Jong Uichico, whose team has not had such a streak since starting the 2004 Fiesta Conference with an 8-0 slate.

Easily, however, it is Seigle who grabs the most attention, making the 1999 Rookie of the Year the hands-down choice as the PBA Press Corps’ Gran Matador Brandy Player of the Week for the period April 17-23.

Seigle was accorded the same honor along with Coca-Cola’ s William Antonio for the April 3-9 span, making him the first player to get the nod of the scribes twice in the season-ending tournament.

The man who turns 30 on June 14 had 26 points, on 8-for-16 field and 10-of-13 free throw shooting, to go with six rebounds in a 117-100 win over Air21 last Wednesday.

He followed that up with outing 27 points and five rebounds in SMB’s 103-97 victory over Talk N Text last Sunday.

What makes his most recent performance more remarkable was the fact he shot 9-of-16 from the field and went 6-of-9 from the stripe in the second half for 24 of his output.

One can only wonder what his total production would have been had he not been saddled by early trouble, forcing Uichico to sideline him in the last four minutes of the first quarter and the entire second period.

What is clear is that Seigle and his teammates show no signs of letting up, making it a no-brainer where they are headed after the eliminations.