Norwood spirited play nets top player honors

MANILA, Philippines – Gabe Norwood made sure to hog the spotlight by his lonesome this time.

After sharing the top Motolite/Accel PBA Press Corps’ Player of the Week honors with Sta. Lucia’s Nelbert Omolon last May 25-31, the Rain or Shine rookie turned up his game a notch higher to earn the award for the period June 15 to 21.

The 24-year-old Norwood normed 15.3 points and 10.3 rebounds in the week, helping the Elasto Painters buck the absence of some key players and take a surprising 2-1 lead over fancied Barangay Ginebra in their best-of-seven Final Four duel.

Those numbers bettered the 11.0 points and 7.6 rebounds he put up during the eliminations and his norms of 11.7 and 10.0 in the quarterfinals and he dished them out at a time when his team has played without Sol Mercado and, alternately, Ryan Arana and Jireh Ibanes.

Mercado remained bothered by a hamstring injury, Arana suffered a right hand injury in the series opener that forced him to miss Game Two while Ibanes was down with flu in Game Three.

“Missing some key players, he became more aggressive in offense and defense,” Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia said of the lead contender for the Rookie of the Year award, who has also so far averaged 3.3 assists and 2.0 steals per game in the semis.

But the soft-spoken Norwood had refused to take all the credit, stressing it was all team effort that carried them to their first-ever semis stint.

“I can’t take all the credit. My teammates are playing great, allowing me the space to use my talents,” said Norwood.

Truly, the likes of Rob Wainwright, Tyrone Tang and JayR Reyes backed him up with solid games on both ends of the floor. But Norwood has proven to be the chief operator of a team whose previous best was a second straight quarterfinals stint.

The 6-foot-5 national team shoo-in notched 16 points on top of 10 rebounds and three steals in a 101-95 win in the opener. He had 13 points and nine rebounds in a 98-103 Game Two loss, but bounced back with a gamehigh-tying 17 points and 12 boards in a 94-88 victory last Sunday.

Another victory over the defending champions Wednesday will put the Asian Coatings franchise on the threshold of its first-ever finals appearance, a totally unexpected turnaround for the former Welcoat team that spent its first two seasons at the tailend of the field.