SHOWTIME L. A. WEEK'S BIGGEST HIT

Player of the Week Dec. 7 - 13, 2009

HE was supposed to be the "future" of San Miguel Beer’s guard line but now LA Tenorio is the "present" of Alaska Milk’s backcourt.

That much was evident during the second meeting between the Aces and the Beermen last Wednesday for solo leadership in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup.

Tenorio torched his former ballclub with a career-high tying 27 points on top of six rebounds and five assists in 44 minutes as Alaska Milk repeated over San Miguel Beer in overtime, 122-116 to remain on top of the standings with a lofty 10-1 record.

It was the rght time to shine for Tenorio as two-time Most Valuable Player Willie Miller struggled all night and could only cough up four points in 34 minutes of exposure.

For his feat, Tenorio was named Accel-KFC Player of the Week by the PBAPress Corps for the period December 6 to13.

"It’s a good thing LA stepped up for us. He’s been performing really well this season," said Alaska Milk coachTim Cone who probably feels he has found another Johnny Abarrientos who can lead the Aces to one championship after the other just like what transpired in the mid-80s.

Tenorio, a standout for the San Beda Red Cubs in the junior division of the NCAAand the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the senior wars of the UAAP, was picked third overall by San Miguel Beer in the 2006-07 season after Sta. Lucia Realty tabbed KellyWilliams at No. 1 and Air 21 (now Burger King) took in Arwind Santos next.

San Miguel had envisioned Tenorio to take over the bckcourt reins for the Beermen upon the retirement of another Atenean sentinel, Rodericko Racela.

But that never materialized as Tenorio was traded to Alaska Milk midway the following season in exchange for a more veteran point guard, Mike Cortez.

A change of scenery did Tenorio’s career a lot of wonders. At Alaska Milk, Tenorio is the lone legitimate point guard for Cone.

Following his brilliant performance againstthe beermen, tenoriois now the leading scorer of Alaska Milkwith 16 points a game. He is also tops in assists with five doleouts per contest. On top of this, he has 4.91 rebounds and 0.91 steal in 33.45 minutes in the first 11 contests of the tournament.

The smallest player on Alaska Milk’s roster, Tenorio is definitely a giant on the hardcourt and a testimony that basketball is not really a domain for big men (BP).

Source: pba.ph