Sta. Lucia's 'Ninja' is PBA week's best

MANILA, Philippines - One sign of an all-around player is the numerous ways he can hurt an opponent. That’s why Sta. Lucia Realty can consider itself lucky for having somebody like Joseph “The Ninja" Yeo, who, as his moniker suggests, can sneak up on an unwitting victim and do a lot of damage. The Realtors’ chief reliever shone on both ends of the floor in his team’s last two games, making him the unanimous choice for the Smart/Accel Philippine Basketball Association Press Corps’ Player of the Week for the period July 7 to 13. The 25-year-old super-sub was everywhere in SLR’s games against Alaska and Talk ’N Text, not only coming up with career scoring games but also rebounding, assisting and harassing the opposition. Those led to victories by the ninth-ranked Realtors in two wildcard games and propelled them to the best-of-three quarterfinals against early qualifier Barangay Ginebra. Yeo’s efforts were not lost on Realtors coach Boyet Fernandez. “Joseph has matured a lot in his game. Even though he’s coming off the bench, he always steps up and that’s an indication of his maturity," Fernandez said. “One thing I really notice about Joseph is he can now play defense. I hope he will continue to improve on his game because he’s really a very good player." The former De La Salle standout, drafted third overall by Coca-Cola in the 2006 Draft and acquired by Sta. Lucia before the season started, showed that the trust on him was founded by scoring a new career-high 27 points in a 99-86 win over Alaska last Wednesday. Against Talk ’N Text Friday, Yeo was even more awesome. In 23 minutes, he scored 29 points on seven-of-10 shooting from the field and 11-of-12 from the stripe. Yeo scored 26 in the second half, 18 of them in the fourth quarter where he went perfect from the field (four-of-four) and from the free throw line (seven-of-seven). - GMANews.TV