MELTON, GUEVARRA TOP SLAMFEST; San Mig Super Coffee’s Justin Melton and Meralco’s Rey Guevarra were hailed as co-champions for the 2014 PBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena.The two men scored a perfect 40 in their two dunks in the final round, leaving the contest at a stalemate. Melton awed the crowd with his flight skills, throwing the ball high, letting it bounce, catching the ball in the air and delivering a reverse jam to send the stadium in a frenzy.He continued this trend for his second dunk in the finals, this time catching the ball in the air and flushing it down with his left hand.“I’m excited. All were great competition and everybody did a good job. It was an exciting competition to say the least,” said Melton. The Coffee Mixers rookie was the shortest in the contest, but he said, “I wasn’t intimidated at all. Coach Tim just told me to have fun and I really did.”Guevarra didn’t back down as he delivered the goods for his turn, first on a windmill dunk, and his final attempt, a left-handed 360 dunk.The Bolts forward bared that when he practiced, he wasn’t able to make them. But that didn’t stop him from trying. “Naramdaman ko lang yung adrenaline sa warmup kaya nung contest na, sinubukan ko nalang. Nagdasal ako at awa naman, na-shoot,” Guevarra said.He added, “Sobrang pressure lang talaga na sobra akong kinabahan. Sabi ko, kung ma-shoot, mashushoot at buti na lang, nagawa ko naman.”Melton and Guevarra qualified for the final round as the two men scored 79 points in the opening round. Melton connected on a left-handed jam over two San Mig Coffee ballboys, and followed it upwith a right-handed dunk as his left hand held the ring.On the other hand, Guevarra pulled two between-the-legs baseline dunks from both sides of the court to enter the finals.Defending champ Chris Ellis could only get to 72 points to finish at third, with his only highlight in the night coming from a dunk over Nino Canaleta.Calvin Abueva (68 points), Japeth Aguilar (65 points), Cliff Hodge, and Alex Nuyles (56 points) rounded out the competition.Judges for the contest were PBA legends Atoy Co and Bogs Adornado, celebrity Ramon Bautista, and PBA Press Corps president Barry Pascua.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 04:31:56 +0000
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