Sweet Revenge for the NCAA All-Stars

The NCAA All Star selection have been known for their winning attitude. And they showed it against college league counterpart UAAP all-star last October 13, 2007

NCAA finalists Rogemar Menor of San Beda and RJ Jazul of Letran teamed up impressively to power the NCAA selection to a come-from-behind 83-78 win over the UAAP selection in the Samsung-Bantay Bata 163 at the Arena in San Juan City.

Down by 16, 23-39, at halftime, the NCAA All-Stars woke up in the third quarter as Menor and Jazul pitched in for 22 points each, including 10 points apiece in the 3rd quarter, to register a 65-60 lead at the start of fourth period.

Samuel Ekwe, racked up 19 points and hauled down 13 rebounds, assured the NCAA All-Stars’ victory after making two free throws to peg the final count with only 4.1 seconds to go.

Edwin Asoro of National University tied the score at 77-all after hitting a trey.  But Ekwe’s two straight jumpers had given the NCAA All-Star squad an 81-77 advantage with 42 seconds left

The UAAP-All-Stars narrowed the gap as Mark Borboran of UE scored on split free throw, 78-81, with 32 seconds remaining.  But the three-point attempts from Dylan Ababou of UST and La Salle guards JV Casio and TY Tang failed as time expired.

Asoro and Casio had 13 points each for the UAAP selection and failed to repeat against the NCAA All-Star squad.

In the side events, the team of University of the Philippines’s (UP) Martin Reyes and Vic Epres were adjudged champions in the two-ball competition.

Reyes and Epres bagged the title after they scored 45 points in the finals, besting the tandem of University of the East’s Paul Lee and Jorel Canizares, who scored 41 points.The two teams went to the Finals after they were tied for first and second places, respectively during the 16-team elimination round with a score of 61 points.

A trophy, P5,000 cash and MP3 players from Samsung were given out to the winners of the event. The three-point shootout was a La Salle and San Beda finale with King Archer Jayvee Casio winning the competition by scoring 23 points in the Finals. Casio bested San Beda’s JR Tescon who finished with just six points. Fr. Mateo de Jesus of San Beda and Jerry Lacson of Samsung Philippines handed out a trophy, a check of P5,000 and an MP3 player to Casio who was named as co-MVP in last week’s UAAP Finals.

Tecson scored 20 points to enter the shoot-out finals first with Casio and Letran’s RJ Azul being tied for the second spot with 19 points apiece. Tecson and Casio entered the Finals as rules state that only players coming from the UAAP and NCAA can go to the Finals of the three-point shoot-out.

The scores in the first round: James Martinez of University of the East with 8 points, Jayson Nocom of Jose Rizal University (10 ), Khasim Mirza of University of Santo Tomas (5), JR Tecson of San Beda (20), Migs de Asis of University of the Philippines (11), Kelvin de la Peña of Mapua (12), JVee Casio of De La Salle (19), RJ Azul (19).

In the slam-dunk competition, Letran’s Rey Guevarra was named champion after scoring a perfect 50 points in the Finals to beat San Beda’s Sam Ekwe and UE’s Hans Thiele

A trophy, P5,000 cash and MP3 players from Samsung were given out to the winners of the event.

The judges for the event were Jasmine Payo of Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), Teodore Jurado of Taliba, Fernando Lozano of Mapua, Mr. Rolando Perez of UE and Peter Musngi of ABS-CBN.

Francis Soriano of UST, Jerome Cruz of JRU, Aaron Galapon of NU, Jason Bellesteros of SSC, Reil Cervantes of FEU and Elmer Espiritu of UE also joined the slam dunk competition.