MANILA, Philippines – Matt Ganuelas provided the early highlights while comedian Jose Manalo provided the non-stop comic relief in a fun charity game which fittingly ended in a draw.
Team Blue headed by Kiefer Ravena, and Team Red led by Bobby Ray Parks Jr. settled for a 71-all draw Saturday night, as the real winners in “Fastbreak 2” were the survivors of the catastrophic typhoon “Yolanda.”
From sponsors, pledges and tickets sales, the proceeds of the event put together by Ateneo’s star Ravena was estimated by the organizers at around a million, which will benefit a small town in Concepcion, Iloilo.
“It’s a small effort, nagtulungan lang kami lahat para mapasaya mga kababayan natin na tinamaan ng bagyo,” Ravena told INQUIRER.net. “Hopefully everyone enjoys and do their part in helping our Kababayans.”
High-leapers Ganuelas, Chris Newsome, and Kiefer’s younger brother Thirdy chipped in the eye-popping, above-the-rim plays — connecting on crafty alley-oops and countless slams.
In fact, Ganuelas stuffed the leather into the rim at the Blue Eagle Gym in the Ateneo campus pretty hard that it broke just a minute and 10 seconds into the charity match.
“Me and Rayray [Parks] were dunking in warm ups and it seemed fine, so game time it just came down,” a surprised Ganuelas told reporters after the dunk.
That wasn’t the end of what turned out to be a hilarious match as ‘It’s Showtime’ duo Billy Crawford and Vhong Navarro along with Manalo of ‘Eat Bulaga’ took care of the comedic antics.
The noontime show rivals turned teammates in Team Red didn’t run out of tricks on the court in making the sizeable crowd laugh.
Manalo had his own whistle tucked inside his shorts, blowing it to give his team the possession when the referee ruled otherwise or to award himself an extra shot from the free throw line.
Crawford and Navarro, meanwhile, busted some dance moves while dribbling the hoop and engaged Manalo in some hilarious acts.
But when the laughter died down, these celebrities showed that they could ball along with the finest players in collegiate level, and that they could handle the rock pretty decently, too.
“I’m honored, it’s a great pleasure and joy for me to be a part of this kind of event I’d like to congratulate Ravena for doing this,” veteran actor Cesar Montano, who was in the Red team, said.
Actors Xian lim, Derek Ramsey, Luis Alandy joined Manalo, Montano, Navarro and Crawford in Red team along with Ravena and NLEX stars Jake Pascual, Garvo Lanete and Baser Amer, among others.
On the other side were actors John Hall, Marco Alcaraz, Ervic Vijandre, Carlo Rosales along with hoop stars Parks, Ganuelas, Kevin Alas, Von Pessumal, Nico Elorde and Chris Tiu.
Popular volleybelles also tried their hand at basketball, with Jheck Dionela, Alyssa Valdez, Melissa Gohing, Jen Reyes, Michelle Gumabao and Rachel Anne Daquis competing in a freebie shooting contest.
But Valdez couldn’t help but put a touch of volleyball in it, tossing in the basketball from the charity stripe to make three free throws.
“Thank you for taking your timeout from your busy schedule to play the game that we love. It’s a chance for us to bond,” Ravena told the guests in a speech just before the fourth period.
It was the second time that Ravena had successfully organized a fund raising event, the last time was for typhoon “Sendong” victims, but he hoped that this was the last.
“This is very important [cause] for me, kasi hindi lang ako naglalaro ng basketball, at the same time I’m able to help too,” Ravena said.