Jazul NCAA’s top player of the week

For a team that thrives mainly in defense, scoring sometimes becomes secondary.

That’s why when sharpshooter RJ Jazul unloaded a season and personal high 37 points in an 88-75 win by Letran College over St. Benilde Friday, people easily noticed.

And that included members of the NCAA Press Corps, which selected the reed-thin, scrappy Jazul as the first recipient of its Player of the Week award in the 84th NCAA basketball tournament.

“This is definitely my best performance since I scored only as high as 23 points before,” said Jazul in Filipino. “But if you ask me, I didn’t really notice because my main focus is to play defense always.”

Truly, Jazul is more than a scoring phenom, he also has the defense to back his steady hands.

While averaging 25 points and six assists in two games, the 22-year-old Pasay City native also had norms of six boards and four steals that impressed his coach.

“Everybody knows he can score that much,” said Letran mentor Louie Alas. “But what I like more about him (Jazul) is that he always plays hard defense every game.”

With Jazul taking charge, the Knights, runners-up to the San Beda Red Lions last year, seized the early lead including an opening day victory over the Jose Rizal Bombers, 83-69, at the Big Dome.

Jazul edged San Sebastian’s Jim Viray and St. Benilde’s Archie David, Anjelo Montecastro and Jacob Manlapaz for the weekly honors given by a group of sportswriters from the country’s leading broadsheets and tabloids covering the oldest league in the land.