ROS’ Chan is week’s best

Manila, Philippines – Jeffrei Chan’s indelible print is now clearly being known in the PBA.

The southpaw forward came up the biggest when his team needed him most, pointing Rain or Shine to the Governors Cup finals and earning for himself the Accel-PBA Press Corps Player of the Week honors for the period July 16 to 22.

Chan scored a gamehigh 25 points in the Elasto Painters’ 92-82 win over B-Meg last Wednesday that gave them the first championship berth in the season-ending tourney and ended the franchise’s six-season wait to get to a championship duel.

In that game, the 29-year-old scattered 10 of his points in the second quarter to help fully establish Rain or Shine’s control of the game before adding seven more in the fourth period for the coasting win.

The former Far Eastern U gunner also had 15 points in a 90-98 loss to Talk ‘N Text just two days before to become the best local scorer for the period, add fuel to what is turning out to be a career season and emerge as the last player to be so cited by the scribes for the season.

Chan has never averaged anywhere near 10 points for a season before, but he is way beyond that with just a shade under 14 points, norming 14.4 ppg in the Governors alone.

For E-Painters coach Yeng Guiao, however, it is not just Chan’s scoring that matters.

“If we are to look at him now, it should be wholistically. The reason he is more successful now is because he has molded his all-around game,” said Guiao of the player he picked at 17th overall in the 2008 Rookie Draft. “He can defend, pass and rebound, too.”

Guiao added that Chan being a known threat, especially from beyond the arc, has offered his teammates more opportunities.