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Underrated Marzan leads Shell back to winning track

SINCE the start of the year, the Philippine Basketball Association Press Corps' Player of the Week citation has been a tight race. Almost always, even when one player stood out, everything boiled down to the last two or three votes..

Not this time.

Quite surprisingly, in a week where there were several sterling performances, one player romped off with the honor. Making it even more refreshing was the fact that out of a number of big name candidates, it was an underrated cager who tabbed the citation.

Jun Marzan, Shell's reliable stopper who has added the scoring load to his list of to do's, won Player of the Week honors in runaway fashion, cornering 77 % of the votes among sportswriters covering the beat for the period lasting from March 27 to April 2.

In that stretch, Marzan averaged 18.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists as he led Shell to back-to-back wins, the defending champion's first this season.

And even when he took on the scoring load, he never surrendered his original role as a defender. Proof of that is the fact that he pulled off a crucial steal in the Zoom Masters' 78-74 win over Ginebra Sunday.

That steal, plus two free throws he buried under pressure to provide a safe cushion for Shell, made him everybody's pick.

The closest votegetter was Eric Menk, who had a mere three votes despite scoring a career-high 45 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in Tanduay's rout of Sta. Lucia.

"Kudos to Jun. He's playing like a possessed man," said Shell coach Perry Ronquillo.

Small wonder he routed the field which included Menk, whose 45 markers was also a season high.

Consider the list of candidates Marzan whipped.

Teammate Jay Mendoza who had a sterling week, including career-highs of 19 points and 11 rebounds. San Miguel's Nic Belasco scored 13 points and a career-best 18 rebounds. Olsen Racela, for his part, scored 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting in an out-of-town game in Cagayan de Oro.

Alaska's Kenneth Duremdes scored a near triple-double, scoring 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists en route to becoming the league's newest feeds leader. Teammate Rodney Santos had a pair of 20-plus points during the week, while Bong Hawkins averaged 18.

But all that faded in the background when Marzan responded to Ronquillo's gentle coaxing and recharged the Zoom Masters back to life. And it wasn't even close.

(Source: PBA Website)