PBA greats treat fans to night of dunks, treys

CALASIAO, Philippines — Japeth Aguilar and Arwind Santos injected the 2019 PBA All Star Game with a heavy dose of aerial show, coming through with highlight slams after highlight slams.

At the end of one of the finest acts ever in the annual midseason spectacle, Aguilar and Santos had their North All-Star team soaring past the South squad, 185-170, and the two dunk artists sharing the All-Star MVP plum at the Calasiao Sports Complex here last night.

Santos came through with 34 points and 17 rebounds, and also laced his show with four three-pointers and six assists to duplicate his All-Star MVP performance in Digos City in 2013.

Aguilar had 32 markers and proved to be the biggest show with never-before-seen tricks he put up here to the delight of the Pangasinense cage fans.

The game’s biggest highlight play belonged to the super-athletic Ginebra center/forward who soared past the 6-foot-10 June Mar Fajardo for a windmill jam late in the third period.

A variety of jams from Aguilar and Santos, a record nine three-pointers from Paul Lee and a triple-double game by LA Tenorio (11 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists) marked what went down as the highest-scoring All-Star Game ever.

Lee finished with 27 points, Alex Cabagnot added 18, and Marcio Lassiter, Calvin Abueva and Troy Rosario had their double-digit outputs in the game breaking the previous high-scoring game when the Vets topped the RSJs, 176-144, in Laoag in 1995.

With a special prize staked by the organizers for every dunk and for every three-pointer, the All Stars gladly obliged, going for the jams and three-pointers, and thus creating one of the best All-Star Games in terms of showmanship. Dunks came in abundance.

June Mar Fajardo came up with 26 points and 13 rebounds for the losing team.

In at least three instances, he played with Aguilar and legend Benjie Paras for jams that sent the crowd up on their feet.

At age 50, Paras executed a slam as he was lifted by Fajardo in a comic post play.

Alvin Patrimonio and Jerry Codinera were legends that played with the losing team while Ronnie Magsanoc was another star of the past that suited up with the North in the match marked by a total of 45 three-pointers and 37 dunks.

One wheel chair will be donated to the Alagang PBA program for each of those triples and dunks. In the Rookies/Sophomores versus Juniors match Friday, 34 three-pointers and 10 slams were made.

The scores:

North All-Stars 185—Santos 34, Aguilar 32, Lee 27, Cabagnot 18, Lassiter 12, Tenorio 11, Abueva 11, Rosario 10, Pringle 8, Banchero 7, Norwood 5, Paras 4, Perkins 3, Magsanoc 2, Castro 0, Caguioa 0.

South All-Stars 170 – Simon 34, Fajardo 26, Romeo 19, Barroca 18, Jalalon 15, Erram 14, Pogoy 12, Ross 10, Slaughter 8, Belo 6, Patrimonio 4, Amer 3, Yap 2, Thompson 0, Codinera 0, Taulava 0.

Quarterscores: 51-25; 89-75; 137-122; 185-170