West dominates East in NCAA All-Star Game; Haruna wins dunk crown

MANILA, Philippines – The West all-stars easily defeated their counterparts from the East team during the 2016 NCAA All-Star Game, 111-77, held at the San Juan Arena on Friday, August 12.

The West raced off to a quick 35-17 lead after the first period and didn’t look back the rest of the way, making the main event of the collegiate league’s all-star festivities to end the first round a one-sided affair.

UPHSD’s big man Bright Akhuetie was named All-Star MVP after posting 16 points and 9 rebounds in a little under 17 minutes of play. Gab Daganon also played well with 14 points, while Kent Salado, Donald Tankoua, and Jiovani Jalalon each posted 10 points in the easy win for the Jamike Jarin-coached team.

The East, coached by Jeff Napa, had only one double-digit scorer in Jorem Morada who finished with 13 points and 6 boards. Rey Nambatac and Christian Fajarito were the next top scorers with 8 points apiece.

Earlier during the league’s Slam Dunk contest, Yankee Haruna came away with the crown thanks to a big mistake by Eugene Toba of San Beda.

Haruna, the runner-up in last year’s dunk contest, missed his first dunk in the final round after failing to jump over 3 teammates, leading to a score of only 30. Toba, on the other hand, received a score of 46 thanks to a 360-degree dunk off a bounce pass from himself.

In the second round, Haruna, a New Jersey native, garnered a 49 after slamming a dunk over ONE Heavyweight champion Brandon Vera, who also threw the pass to the Filipino-American from St. Benilde. 

All Toba needed to do to seal the title was avoid missing a dunk to not get a 30, but he tried a difficult dunk by jumping over a seated Akhuetie while receiving a lob from out of bounds courtesy of Davon Potts. The Team B player of San Beda missed all his attempts, and the final score from the judges wound up 79-76 for Haruna.

In the 3-point shootout competition, AC Soberano of the Red Lions out-shot Mapua’s Exe Biteng and San Sebastian’s RK Ilagan in the final round to take home the crown.

Soberano, who was the lone 20-point scorer of the event, had 20 in the finals while Biteng and Ilagan finished with 11 and 15 points, respectively.

In the All-Star Shooting Stars Challenge, the JRU Heavy Bombers team consisting of Darius Estrella, Marvin Jayes, and Cedell Buno came away with the title.

The trio had the quickest time in the elimination round at 43.4 seconds, and ended up facing the Perpetual Altas team of Flash Sadiwa, Doy Javier, and Gielo Razon in the finals after the latter clocked in at 51.8.

In the championship round, Perpetual had a time of 1:07, which JRU easily defeated after completing the shooting challenge in just 27 seconds.

Mapua Cardinals guard Darell Menina won the first All-Star event of the day – the Skills Challenge – after holding off Kraniel Villoria from Arellano in the final.  – Rappler.com