Yap, Taulava PBA top gun, rebound king

Purefoods’ James Yap ran away with the scoring honors, Coca-Cola’s Asi Taulava reigned as the rebounding king and Ginebra’s Jayjay Helterbrand emerged No. 1 in assists in the 2007-08 PBA season.

Sta. Lucia’s Ryan Reyes, Air21’s Arwind Santos, Alaska’s Sonny Thoss, Red Bull’s Mike Hrabak and Coca-Cola’s Mark Macapagal also topped different statistical departments in the season highlighted by the title conquests of the Sta. Lucia Realtors and the Barangay Ginebra Kings.

The stats races turned out to be as close as the battles for both the Philippine Cup and the Fiesta Conference titles.

Yap ended Mark Caguioa’s two-year reign as scoring champion as the 2006 MVP winner averaged 21.32 points a game to edge two-time MVP awardee Willie Miller, who normed 20.67 an outing.

Rounding out the top 10 scorers were Caguioa (19.82), Kelly Williams (18.23), Helterbrand (18.11), Cyrus Baguio (18.02), Macmac Cardona (16.89), Santos (16.33), Danny Seigle (15.39) and Gary David (15.33).

Yap became only the second Purefoods player to emerge scoring champion after Alvin Patrimonio who was No. 1 in 1992, 1993 and 1998. The former UE Warrior continued to improve his norm after averaging only 12.5 points in his rookie year, 17.6 the following season and 19.7 in his junior season as a pro.

Taulava and Helterbrand retained their crowns as rebounding and assists kings, respectively, with the Coca-Cola behemoth averaging 12.51 boards a game and the Ginebra playmaker dishing off 6.5 assists per contest.

Williams (10.73), Nic Belasco (10.35), Santos (9.56) and Kerby Raymundo (9.2) also shone in rebounds while Jimmy Alapag (5.9), Wynne Arboleda (4.8), Alex Cabagnot (4.5) and LA Tenorio (4.5) ranked next to Helterbrand in assists.

Reyes was No. 1 in steals, Santos in shot blocks, Thoss in overall field-goal shooting percentage, Hrabak in three-point accuracy and Macapagal in charities.

Reyes, the Rookie of the Year awardee, came through with 2.1 steals a game, besting Arboleda, two-time champion in this department, who was relegated to second with 1.6 an outing.

Topex Robinson and Dondon Hontiveros third for third with 1.3 per game then Baguio at fifth with 1.2 per contest.

Santos was No.1 in shot blocks with an average of 1.45 as against the 1.43 of Ali Peek, 1.29 of Hrabak, 1.13 of Marlou Aquino and 1.03 of Marc Pingris.

Hrabak was the best in three-point shooting, hitting at a 42.92-percent clip per game but Thoss was No. 1 in overall field-goal shooting accuracy, converting 53.87 percent of his shots per contest.

Tops in free throw shooting were Macapagal (82.42 percent), Ronjay Buenafe (81.58), Lordy Tugade (81.33), David (81.25) and Yap (81.16).

The most erratic player, however, was Macmac Cardona with 3.75 errors a game, followed by JayR Reyes (3.38), Raymundo (3.38), Miller (3.26) and Arboleda (3.24).