Helterbrand repeats as confab's best

MANILA, Philippines – Ginebra ace guard Jayjay Helterbrand captured the Best Player of the Conference (BPC) honors in the PBA reinforced tourney for the second straight year.

Helterbrand repeated as Fiesta Conference best player, winning the coveted award this season over Burger King’s Arwind Santos, San Miguel’s Dondon Hontiveros, Coca-Cola’s Asi Taulava and Talk n Text’s Jimmy Alapag.

The 32-year-old Kentucky State U product was awarded his plaque by PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios in a simple ceremony before Game Two of the Ginebra-San Miguel showdown for the Fiesta Conference championship.

The Best Import award went to San Miguel’s Gabe Freeman who won it over Ginebra’s David Noel, Burger King’s Shawn Daniels and Rain or Shine’s Jai Lewis.

“I’m happy to win this award but this would mean nothing if we don’t win the championship. I’m sharing the honor with my teammates who also worked hard to help where we are right now,” said Helterbrand, the first player in eight years to successfully defend a BPC award.

Helterbrand won the award last year over Santos, Mark Caguioa, and Kelly Williams.

Nelson Asaytono (in the 1997-98 All-Filipino Conferences) and Danny Ildefonso (2000-2001 Governors Cups) were the first two players to achieve the feat. Both gained the awards with San Miguel Beer.

Ildefonso actually won five straight BPC awards leading to back-to-back MVP conquests in those years.

Helterbrand was the runaway winner in this BPC race, amassing 1357 points to Santos’ 857, Hontiveros’ 423, Taulava’s 325 and Alapag’s 316.

He leads all local players in scoring with a 17.7-point average and ranks second in assists behind Jimmy Alapag (6.3) with 5.2 per outing.

In a remarkable feat, he was Best Player of the Game in four of their last five won ballgames.